Harry James Potter-Black
by DCUO Statellizer
Summary: Sirius was given a trial thus proven innocent. Dumbledore followed through on James' and Lily's Will. As he mourned the loss of James and Lily, Sirius took it upon himself to raise Harry as his own. With a different upbringing, things are sure to turn out differently as well. HP/DG/HG:Friendship, Adventure and a bit of Humor.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, may it be the book series or movie franchise. I make no profit in anyway; this is entirely for fun and for the sake of writing.**

**An overview:**

**Wormtail escaped but Sirius went through proper procedure and was given a trial, proving his innocence. Dumbledore listened to McGonagall's warning about Harry's muggle relatives and thus relented; bringing the fifteen month old boy to Hogwarts instead to wait for his Godfather. The official story released to the wizarding community is that their feared Dark Lord disappears following his attack on the Potters. Defeated? Possibly. Dead and gone forever? Not likely. But calm ensues nonetheless. Harry Potter, celebrated heir to the Heroes of the wizarding world; well, at least that's what they agreed to tell people.**

* * *

November 2, 1981

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardly

Headmaster's office

It's mid-afternoon. Even with most of the day asleep, one Sirius Black found himself tired and weary. What was a man supposed to do when he finds out in just a span of forty-eight hours that he's not only lost two of his closest friends, family even; his best friend and his wife but also, that they've been betrayed by one of their closest friends. Not only did said betrayer do such an unforgivable act but also, almost manage to frame him up and get him carted off to the worst prison one could ever think of, Azkaban.

Now Sirius found himself walking on the grounds of 'his' school. After his rather dull and quick paced trial last night, he was cleared of all the charges and opted to go home to mourn for his loss; knowing that once the entire Wizarding world discovered that the self-proclaimed Dark Lord has disappeared, defeated, that his entire kind's community would celebrate without giving a glance back to the people that have sacrificed a lot for them to experience the relief and peace they have now and for the years to come.

Sirius was vaguely aware of the Hogwarts' students that he passes as he walked to the Headmaster's office, his expression dull and eyes red from crying. He sighed. His mind wasn't capable of getting the hang of Occulumency anytime soon.

Barely noticing the stone gargoyle stepping aside to let him through, Sirius climbed the winding staircase up to the Headmaster's office and knocked.

"Enter" he heard Dumbledore from the other side.

Sirius composed himself and enters the office. "You called for me Professor Dumbledore?"

Albus Dumbledore looked up from his desk and it was immediately apparent to Sirius that the Headmaster's appearance was not his usual as well. The headmaster's usually brilliant blue eyes were dull and it seemed at least that the old man was mourning over the many members his order lost to the war that just ended barely two days ago.

"Yes Sirius, take a seat. I'm afraid we have much to discuss; many of which are in regard to you and your godson." Dumbledore motions his palm to the seat in front of his desk.

As Sirius took a seat and Dumbledore started, "To start with, I had asked the Goblins to deliver James' and Lily's will here for convenience."

Dumbledore handed Sirius the scroll of parchment and he went over it without invitation from the elder wizard. "I had originally thought of placing young Harry under the guardianship of Lily's sister Petunia, his aunt." The elder wizard voiced out.

Sirius looked up sharply, "What!? You can't! Lily's sister hates magic to her very core, and hated Lily for it. Think of how she would feel for Lily's son…" uncontrollable rage coursed through his veins.

Dumbledore brought a hand up that silenced the younger man's eventual tirade, "Indeed, I have been made aware; after much deliberation. I deemed it wise to listen to Minerva, having observed Petunia's family prior to our arrival the other night, and follow the Will."

Sirius visibly relaxed and slumped back into the seat. Reading back into the parchment, he found that he was the first choice for his godson's guardianship, followed by the Longbottoms and Remus, their other friend.

After reading the Will for what seemed to be the fifth time without as much a sign of Dumbledore's impatience, Sirius asked, "Where's is Harry now?"

"I believe he is in the Gryffindor's common room much to the delight of most of the sixth and seventh year girls of Minerva's house; I assure you he is taken care of at the moment." The headmaster answered, much of the weariness in his feature now visibly lessened.

"What happened at Grodic's Hollow Professor? I came as soon as I found out Peter's betrayal but when I got there, all I found was James and Lily's lifeless bodies and Harry with that gash on his forehead." Sirius asked, eyes narrowed.

"I'm afraid I can only give you my own theories as to what may have occurred Sirius." Dumbledore offered after a tired breath. Sirius curtly nodded for the elder wizard to continue.

"When Voldemort came calling for the Potters that night, he came with one purpose and one purpose only." Dumbledore paused, "His only intent was to kill James' and Lily's son, your godson, Harry."

"Why? I wouldn't put it past Voldemort to commit murder just for his and his followers brand of entertainment but surely a '_Pureblood' _such as him would have some reservations on killing innocent children!?" Sirius asked with all the scorn and hatred he could muster for Voldemort and his bigoted pureblood followers. The entire Order knew of Tom Riddle's origins of course. What none could understand were the reasons on why a practically muggleborn would support the pureblood agenda.

Dumbledore peered at Sirius through his half-moon spectacles with piercing blue eyes, "Information in the form of a Prophecy was leaked to Voldemort regarding his eventual downfall. I'm afraid I cannot disclose upon you the exact wording of the Prophecy…" Dumbledore raised a hand to stop Sirius' protest, "At this current time; for I would want to have Harry present and another who may have been indicated in said prophecy."

Sirius let out a tired breath and conceded to the old man's decision. "How did Harry survive while all I found near his crib was a stomp of possibly Voldemort's ashen remains and Lily lying lifeless a few feet away?"

"I have theory which is very likely seeing as how dear Lily was such a brilliant witch. Lily invoked upon a very ancient magic, her sacrifice it seems is what caused Voldemort's own killing curse to rebound from his final target back to himself." Dumbledore said, but kept a contemplative look on his face.

"I know that look Dumbledore. There is a 'but' in there somewhere seeing as you yourself can't seem to trust your own assessment." Sirius stated.

Dumbledore is pulled from his thoughts by the younger wizard's words, "Yes, quite right my boy. What confuses me is that if Lily indeed performed the sacrifice necessary to bestow upon Harry a shield against Voldemort's evil; the killing curse should have never had the chance to touch the boy and yet it did, leaving a mark on young Harry."

Sirius barely suppressed his shock on what event the old wizard's words implied, "What are you saying? That Harry did what no other has ever done before? Survived the killing curse, and somehow returned it to its owner?"

"One can only ponder at the moment. But at least, the ease in the knowledge is that Harry is in no immediate danger from any side effects of the rebounding curse." Dumbledore calmly offered.

Sirius once again slumped back into the seat and thought of a change in subject, "What are you going to tell them? The ministry as well the whole wizarding community will eventually work it out that Voldemort simply disappeared following his attack on Godric's Hollow. Once they find out Harry is the only survivor of his attack, they're going to dub him with a ridiculous title that will probably be coupled with fame; they're never going to give him a moment's peace for the rest of his natural life." Sirius said with concern for his godson.

"A sound assessment Sirius; I will disclose to the wizarding community of Voldemort's defeat following his attack on the Potters but not of the circumstances of his downfall, we owe James and Lily as much to give their son a normal childhood."

"Which is why you must follow through on the James' and Lily's Will as soon you're able Sirius. And for a time, take Harry away; I hear wizarding France is the leading country on wizarding innovations. And I must impress upon you, that as soon as he is able, you must impart to Harry of your knowledge about his every little inquiries. I have a feeling that Harry will grow into a very remarkable wizard." Dumbledore finished with a hint of urgency.

Sirius smirked, "I plan to even without your permission Professor. I think it's time I take up Lordship of the Ancient and Noble house of Black. I have to make good on James' and Lily's Will; maybe even more."

"Very good Sirius, I believe this concludes our meeting. I trust you remember the way to your old dorm room? Don't worry about the password, Minerva will be waiting for you by the portrait." Dumbledore said with a lighter air about him than when their meeting started.

Sirius stood to exit the Headmaster's office, "One more thing Sirius, Magic is Magic, it is neither light nor dark. In the end, we are all judged by our deeds; that much I learned only after a century of my time on this world."

Sirius partially turned back and gave Dumbledore a curt nod. In no time, he was off to pick up his godson intending to raise Harry the way James and Lily would have wanted him to.

* * *

**Shout out to the one who took time and edited this chapter Snakefang93. Cheers. :)**


	2. Diagon Alley

**A/N: Standard disclaimer's on the first chapter, so I don't think I have to repeat that. Anyways, Updated early to elaborate on the general direction of my very first Harry Potter FanFic.**

**This is a Beta'd version, courtesy of Snakefang93**

* * *

Present day July 31, 1991

Black Ancestral Manor (Renovated)

#12 Grimmauld Place (Location, Unplottable. House, Warded)

Sirius Black sat back and relaxed on the main room's couch, revelling on the memory of the moment about ten years ago when his life drastically changed, maybe not entirely for the better but not exactly bad either. The first time he held his godson after accepting the reality of James' and Lily's death, something changed in him. He couldn't explain what it was exactly only that it felt like he added about twenty to thirty years of maturity to his out-look in life. Most of the marauder in him died along with James that night.

After taking up Lordship over the noble house of Black, Sirius proceeded on putting to action James' and Lily's Will. He contacted Remus to ask help raising Harry because he knew that he couldn't do it alone. Remus' furry little problem provided the perfect opportunity to contact Severus Snape so that he can finally make peace with the man for he knew that Lily meant a lot to Snape as well; that and they needed him to teach them how to brew the wolfsbane potion, even offering pay for Snape's teaching services, no matter how long it took for him to pound the skill into their skulls.

With Remus' problems solved, it was only a matter of cleaning up his house he inherited after his bitch of a mother died, promptly disinheriting Bellatrix from the Black family line when she was carted off to Azkaban for the torture of Alice and Frank Longbottom. Alice took about five years until she was deemed fit to be released from St. Mungo's Hospital whilst her husband hasn't shown any improvement for the past ten years. Sirius also reconnected distant family ties, reinstating his cousin Andromeda Tonks back into the Black family line, as well as doing business again with the Noble house of Greengrass which was distantly related to the Blacks through marriage.

Last order of business that was needed to be done was Harry's blood adoption. James and Lily simply asked that Sirius be Harry's guardian and trusted that he would take care of their son, but to Sirius, he wanted it more binding and adopted Harry as his heir. He was sure that Harry would already grow to be a very remarkable and powerful wizard, what with his parents being both an unspeakable in the department of mysteries. Lily in Charms, Warding, Spell Creation and Development and James on… stuff Sirius never wanted to know about and gladly chose obliviation rather than stating a vow of silence like what he did with Lily. So it would be better if the House of Black had a wizard of Harry's calibre as it's head. The thought confirmed his decision to adopt Harry magically.

Sirius' expectations didn't disappoint as Harry showed an insatiable thirst for knowledge much like how Lily and a certain Black family ancestor who became a Hogwarts Headmaster during their time. When Harry was five years old, they lived at a holiday house of the house of Black in France with Remus who finally mastered brewing his special potion. France being one of the most innovative wizarding nation no longer had the statute or decree for reasonable restriction of underage wizardry, as long as magic was performed under adult supervision. Harry attended Beauxbatons' elementary; diligently learning proper wizarding etiquette, the French language as well as Latin, basic transfigurations, charms and magical theory. Such practice has been adopted throughout most of the wizarding communities all over the world save magical Britain; in fact before entering the ninety's, the Americans have been experimenting on implementing muggle devices for magical use, although there were no positive results till now.

Sirius is pulled from his early morning musing when he hears his godson's bedroom door open and close. He was simply astounded by the boy descending the stairs with a floating book in front of him, his arm stretched out. "Morning Harry, I take it Snape's gift arrived on time again?"

Harry turned towards his godfather seated on the couch and hummed a confirmation, "I'm building up my mindscape, I think I'll have Professor Snape look at the method I chose to organize my thoughts school". While building a mindscape sounded like much progress, it actually wasn't much in reality. Building a mindscape helped a mind art's practitioner to go directly to one's thoughts, without even searching, which was the case when a practitioner uses a 'legillimens' on an untrained mind.

Sirius nodded, accepting his godson's decision, "On another note," Sirius took out a rectangular wrapped box and tossed it to Harry who caught it, "Happy Birthday cub." On cue, their head elf, chef, and Harry's nanny when he was small, called Missy appeared into the room with a soft 'pop', carrying a slice of his birthday cake.

"Thanks Missy,"

"Not at all Master Harry. I is also reminding Master that his Miss Daphne floo called earlier about buying school supplies after having lunch together at the leaking cauldron at about eleven o'clock." The elf said to her charge.

Harry beamed and promptly swallowed his bite of cake, "Thanks again Missy," the elf bowed and popped away to start her head elf duties.

Sirius observed patiently while Harry undid the wrapping to his present. Came fell a specially tempered dragon-hide wand holster and a coupon' for a custom wand from one of the shops in Knockturn Alley.

Harry beamed at his godfather with bright emerald eyes to express his gratitude.

Sirius smiled back at his godson's reaction while entertaining an errant thought, '_At least presents can still make him act like a kid his age… well… sometimes.'_

"I trust you know the way to the custom wand shop at Knockturn? I'll have escorts shadowing you." Sirius said as he handed Harry the usual portkey ring that was voice activated.

"Yes, Padfoot. I know the drill, always keep on sight, don't panic in the sign of danger, worst comes to worst; grab Daphne and portkey out, Ministry rules be damned." Harry said in a mockingly deadpanned tone complete with an eye rolling effect and a smirk after; making Sirius grab his godson and ruffle his already messy unruly hair.

After a sharing a moment of laughter, "Guess I'd better get ready, I didn't notice the time fly when I started to read this morning." Harry said as he closed the levitated Occlumency book, grabbed it from the air to carry it back to his room.

* * *

July 31, 1991 10:00am

The Leaky Cauldron

The Leaky Cauldron's fireplace blazed in emerald flames to reveal a young wizard at around age eleven landed kneeling on his right knee, much like how a knight knelt to his king. Harry had adopted this method of landing via Floo network when it was apparent that he had inherited his father's clumsiness at that particular method of travel. In his godfather's opinion; that was about the only unfavourable trait he'd inherited from James, everything else were either great or brilliant.

The bartender noticed the young man's arrival and he scurries off towards Harry, "Mr. Potter, what can I do for you today?" he asked as he held out a hand for Harry.

"Thanks Tom, Diagon Alley please." Harry requested after steadying himself.

The bartender Tom was always amused at the young wizard, such humility for an heir of not just one but two noble and ancient houses was simply unheard of; if he didn't see it for himself on a regular basis, he wouldn't have dreamt of it being possible. "Of course, right this way." He said leading the way to open the arch way for Harry to Diagon Alley.

"My gratitude again Tom." Harry said with a wave as he made a beeline for the most prominent structure on the alley, Gringotts. He needed to withdraw for his expected purchases of school requirements and a few other extra; one never knew when there's a good book lying around.

Inside the wizarding bank, Harry approached an available goblin teller, "May I speak with my account manager?"

The goblin looked up, spotting his Potter family ring hanging from a silver chain on Harry's neck, "Ah yes, Mr. Potter. Right this way."

The goblin leads Harry to his account manager's office, he enters and greeted. "Greetings Griphook." Harry bowed slightly.

"You as well Mr. Potter, withdrawal for your school supplies?" Griphook asked which was answered with a nod from Harry.

Griphook handed him a small pouch which is magically expanded inside containing his money from a drawer magically connected to his trust vault, "I took the liberty of adding a couple hundred for your personal usage." The goblin account manager stated.

"Insightful as always, thanks Griphook. Until next time." Harry said again with a bow, and waved as he exited the door to head back to the Leaky Cauldron to meet up with his fellow eleven year old and long time friend Daphne Greengrass.

* * *

"How about some dessert at Florean Fortescue's Daph?" Harry asked as they have just finished a wonderful lunch. He called her 'Daph' just to annoy his friend knowing that she wasn't overly fond of the name which sounded so 'daft'.

Daphne suppresses a grin and playfully rolled her eyes at Harry, "I knew I shouldn't have gotten you addicted to ice cream all those years ago… but… Deal, your treat. Thank you Harry." She said with a radiant smile that threatened to be infectious as she headed towards the Diagon Alley entry way with Harry in tow, held by the wrist.

Harry chuckled at his best friend's antics as he lets her drag him towards the ice cream parlor.

As they got to the ice cream parlor, they took their usual table outside the shop. It has always been an unspoken hobby that Harry and Daphne shared to just sit back and watch the hassle and bustle of Diagon alley as countless witches and wizards crisscrossed from shop to shop as they shopped for their needs, some leisurely and some in a rush. They even dubbed the alley as 'Coordinated Chaos', usually around the time they knew school was about to start at Hogwarts.

This year isn't so different, only this time they'd be joining the laid out mess. Just as soon as they finish their cold, sweet, minty treat.

Harry and Daphne spent their time in reverie as they went through their dessert. As they were finishing, "Hmmm. I knew she'd be back for those books." Daphne said and giggled.

"Who?" Harry asked having finished his own ice cream.

Daphne pointed toward the archway entrance to Diagon alley. A girl with bushy brown hair walk through the archway with what seemed to be her parents and a stern looking woman Harry remembered to be called Professor McGonagall of Hogwarts. He recognized her from a huge group photo his godfather showed him once.

"Oh. Muggleborn… hang on, aren't muggleborns led through Diagon Alley around the middle of July?"

"Uhh hmm… she was with the rest of the group two weeks ago when the Hogwarts' Professor led them through all the purchases. I didn't catch her name but Ms. Bushy brown hair practically begged her parents to buy her the extra books but apparently their galleon exchange was just enough and Gringotts was closed for the day." Daphne explained.

"I wouldn't be surprised if she is as much of a bookworm as you Harry." She added with a teasing grin.

"Well then, with her… that would make three of us won't it?" Harry shot back with his own playful grin.

They both laughed at their own expense, "On another note, shall we start with our school supplies as well?"

"Sure, I propose we buy our trunks first then get fitted for school robes. Shall we Milady?" Harry suggested then starting another playful banter.

"Certainly Milord." Daphne beamed while giggling lightly at his dramatics, grabbing Harry's offered arm as they set off to do their shopping.

* * *

Harry got himself a custom trunk with magically expanded compartments. One compartment's for his clothes and other necessities, the other two will be for his books; not just the school books but also the ones he specifically favored from Black manor's library and of course a few reference books that he might find use of for his school work.

Daphne only bought a custom magically expanded single compartment trunk. Her reason for that being, she only needed to bring her clothes, school robes and a few muggle designer casual wear, and then teasingly pointed out that since Harry was bringing half of his library with him, she needn't bring her own. Suffice it to say that Harry was floored with that reasoning and just proceeded to hurry the both of them to Madam Malkin's for fitting.

"So, you handle our first year course books and I'll get our potions ingredients and cauldron. Then we meet by the entry way to Knockturn Alley. Got your portkey ring? I have mine right here." Daphne said as she held up her right ring finger.

Harry nodded, "Got mine right here as well; and Sirius' people will be shadowing us as usual. See you in a bit Daph." He then headed to Flourish and Blotts to purchase their school books.

* * *

**Yeah, I'm not really that good at making up Goblin names; so I used Griphook instead. oh, and if anyone's looking for Kreacher, well let's just say that he's not the Head elf at the moment, thus no reason to interact with his 'Masters'. Lastly, rest assured that whatever Harry gets from the custom wand shop, won't be ridiculously powerful. Rare core maybe, but not too rare. I think Phoenix is rare enough if you really think about it. By the way, Reviews and Opinions on what you think, I leave it to the reader's discretion though one can hope for reviewers and critics to at least be nice. :)**


	3. Second impression

**A/N: Chapter reposted on 15th December 2012. Beta'd by Snakefang93**

* * *

One Hermione Granger couldn't be more ecstatic since her day started, well unless of course she counted the moment in her life, not three weeks ago when a professor from a School of Witchcraft and Wizardry came knocking with her acceptance letter.

Hermione and her parents may have been skeptical at first, but after Professor McGonagall had showed them proof of the existence of magic, not to mention the times when things happened around her that went unexplained until that moment.

Needless to say, Hermione was thrilled and after some serious deliberation, her parents supported her a hundred and ten percent. Just the thought of learning new things from a whole different world than the one she has been leaving in for the past twelve years filled her with excitement at the possibilities.

So here she was again at Diagon Alley with her parents and Professor McGonagall. Hermione couldn't wait to get back to Flourish and Blotts, the book store she and the other muggleborns the Professor had brought them to buy their school books two weeks ago. She had initially wanted to buy some more extra books then but her parents had only exchanged just enough to wizarding money for her school supplies and the bank called Gringotts was closed at the time. What more, the bank was run by GOBLINS of all things.

Hermione contended to go over her school books with the promise that Professor McGonagall would be accompanying her and her parents back to Diagon Alley whenever she finished skimming through the school books she purchased.

As she passed the ice cream parlour that caught her attention two weeks ago, Hermione slowed down for the adults to catch up, "Mum? Can we stop by at the ice cream parlour after we buy more books?" she asked, eyes wide and hopeful.

Emma Granger looked down at her daughter and smiled as she opened her mouth but was beaten by her husband Dan Granger to the response, "Knowing you Hermione, I'd say that's probably about four hours from now?" he teased his little girl, but really, once Hermione got entranced by books; their daughter's self-control is visually stretched to the limit. They had to stop her from purchasing an entire library.

"Dad!" Hermione whined at her father's teasing while her mother playfully slapped her father on the shoulder.

One last look back at Florean Fortescue, her eyes land on a young couple around her age. They were both smartly dressed basing on her quick observation, the boy may have unruly black hair but he seemed suited for it. Hermione couldn't see more of the boy as he had his back on her, whilst his companion, a girl with pale-blonde hair, length just passed her shoulders. The young couple (at least she assumed they were) were engaged in a playful conversation as seen from the pretty blonde's smile and Hermione couldn't help but feel that slight twinge in the pit of her stomach, her greatest desire aside from the knowledge she got from her books, was to have real friends. She hoped that with her starting her education in whole different world than the one she's used to, she might finally make some friends.

* * *

It's been close to an hour since Hermione and her parents along with Professor McGonagall entered Flourish and Blotts. Her parents were waiting patiently for her near what somewhat resembled a waiting area with comfortable couches that the bookstore had. Apparently there were more of her kind in the wizarding world.

Hermione sifted through the towering pile infront of her deciding what was the best to buy. She did promise to keep her purchases under ten books, maybe fifteen the most if she could argue her way through.

"Having trouble with the selection?" said a voice from behind Hermione.

She let out a small gasp as she was startled having not noticed that there was a person behind her. She turned to the owner of the voice and is greeted by a pair of emerald-green eyes. The boy might had unruly black hair, but with his aristocratic features, he carried himself well with an air of utter confidence and charisma, if his smile was anything to go by.

Hermione was rendered speechless for a moment by their proximity and just nodded at his question.

He gave her a warm smile, "Hmmm, let's see what you got here…" he then proceeded to take a look at Hermione's pile of selection. "You've got good eye for reference books, first time at Hogwarts as well?"

Hermione timidly bit her bottom lip and nodded in confirmation, cheeks flushing slightly.

"Anyone else in your family a witch or wizard or are you first generation magical in your family?" he asked out of formality and didn't want to assume anything, but his eyes were intent.

Hermione was surprised by the question. The last time she was at Diagon Alley with the other muggleborns, a pale blonde boy caught on to their excitement and was quick to give out non too pleasant comments about their blood heritage and about them knowing their place, all the time with a sneer firmly planted on his face. Needless to say, no one was pleased with his performance and the boy flushed when the professor berated him.

She shook her head to answer his question.

"I see, well then… did your parents limit your number of purchase?" He inquired again.

Hermione nodded and said, "Just a maximum of fifteen books."

He chuckled which made Hermione blush again thinking that he's laughing at her. No normal person bought ten or more books in one go. And the tomes on her pile weren't around exactly on the slim side.

Missing her blush, he continued, "Since you're muggleborn, we'll just add a few more tomes to your selection… help you get adjusted better in our world."

Hermione blinked and looked up sharply to find the boy already climbing some stacks and navigating the ladder with perfect ease. She thought he was making fun of her when she heard him chuckle just moment ago. Perhaps this boy wasn't so bad after all.

She watched him as he carried a pile of four books and walked back to her and added the books to her stack.

"These should help ease the transition, I can only imagine how overwhelming and yet exciting all this must have been when you found out about it." He said with a smile.

Hermione nodded in agreement and getting comfortable finally managed to give him a small smile.

He smiled back, "Well, here are the books I have chosen for you, _Hogwarts: A history_and _Hogwarts: The four founders,_just to give you a little bit of background on the school. Then here we have, _The rise and fall of the Dark arts,_those muggle legends had to come from somewhere right? And I've added _Wizarding custom: then and now,_gives you a bit of a background on how the wizarding world lived separate from the muggle world. Oh, and one more thing…" He said.

With his latter statement, he walked towards a stack and rearranged some books. Hermione is confused on what the boy is up to until he stepped back and a book case swung open, he walked in and before she could follow, he's already walking back out with one more book entitled _Clear your mind._

"Here you are, read this one first. Starter book on mind arts, an obscure branch of magic. Not entirely popular with most of our generation but offers tremendous help in studying."

Hermione nodded, now contemplating on how to get her pile to the counter for payment.

Noticing her dilemma, "Oh, sorry, let me help you with those." With that, one by one the books rose and levitated towards the counter seemingly guided by the boy's outstretched arm.

Dumbfounded at the casual show of magic, wandless at that, it took Hermione a moment to compose herself and walk towards the counter and find the boy talking to the manager and possibly paying for his purchase. After a moment, the boy and the manager seemed to have concluded their transaction as the boy walked toward the coat hanger to retrieve his cloak and swung it over his body. With a last wave, the boy exited the bookshop.

For the second time in hour, Hermione was startled by a voice behind her but she knew who it belonged to this time, "That's quite a pile of books you got there sweetie, I'm not sure if we made an exchange enough to pay for those. I guess we're going to have to make another trip at the bank." Dan Granger said finding the stack of books his daughter planned to purchase.

Hermione was about to apologize to her Mum and Dad when the store manager spoke up from behind the counter, "You need not worry about that Mr.… uhmm… aha, here we go, Mr. Granger. All of these have already been paid for. I just need to take inventory then I'm sure the Professor can shrink them to a more manageable size until you get home."

Hermione and her parents blinked at what the manager said, but Emma Granger was the one who voiced the collective question, "Pardon me sir, but how is that possible?"

"That young lad who just left paid for all of Ms. Granger's purchases."

Professor McGonagall walked up to the Grangers, "Ah yes, that was young Mr. Potter. Such a sweet boy he is. He'll also be starting his first year at Hogwarts this year, I'd say, you're in for a good start Ms. Granger. Did he recommend any books?" she inquired.

"Yes, these five here." Hermione pointed out the books the strange boy chose for her.

"I see, then I suggest you read those first when you get home. May I shrink them now?" the Professor asked the manager.

"Of course Professor, go ahead." With that, McGonagall shrinked the books and Hermione fitted them in her pocket, feeling excited to get home, completely forgetting that she had asked her parents to stop by the ice cream parlour earlier.

When the four of them exited the bookshop, Hermione looked around the street hoping to find the boy she only knew as Potter. She wanted to thank him for helping out and paying for her books.

Quite a distance away, she caught a sight of unruly black hair before being hidden by a pulled up hood. Hermione watched the boy from earlier join up with another cloaked figure with a few pale-blonde hairs escaping through the hood. She assumed he was meeting up with his err… Probably girlfriend… of that she wasn't sure. She watched them step towards a darkened Alley with an archway similar looking to the Diagon Alley entry way, only the name is Knockturn Alley.

Looking from afar, the alley seemed seedy and filled with less than desirable personalities but Hermione shrugged it off. Going about her theory about the boy surnamed Potter, she surmised that he was most likely born to a long line of magical family and probably knew magic all his life; which is why she was quite grateful that he had made a good second impression about kids her age that grew up around magic. Her first impression was that of a certain pale-blonde boy who simply was too arrogant to even look at the ground he was treading.

"Well young lady, how about that Ice cream now huh?" Emma Granger reminded much to the delight of her daughter.

Hermione beamed and happily dragged her parents towards the Florean Fortescue for her sweet treat.

* * *

**A/N: questions may arise on terms of that little bit of wandless magic; so let me just assure you that it won't be playing a big part on my story. Witches and Wizards alike would still be needing wands, I won't go too far on the wandless bit, just think of it as telekinesis or star wars. I mean they are magical but can't do magic without a fancy stick? anyway, Reviews and opinions are most welcome, I leave it to the reader's discretion. **


	4. Towards the start of term

**A/N: New chapter, I tried beefing it up a bit; apparently a bit is not that much. Wrote this chapter in a local Starbucks, downed two caramel macchiatos and smoked a pack of cigarettes. it was rather fun, though I don't how I did with this work.**

* * *

"Took you longer than usual, found a good book?" Daphne asked when Harry joined her near the archway to Knockturn Alley.

Pulling his hood up, Harry motioned for them to proceed into the alley, "No, I was just helping out the muggleborn you pointed out earlier. Chose some books for her regarding Hogwarts' history and also about the wizarding world's customs and tradition. You know how most of our peers are towards non-purebloods, not that I'm saying that I never had to deal with a bit of prejudice myself but you get the point."

"True. I'd hate for her or the other muggleborns to cross paths with the kind of bigotry we've had to put up with growing up. I mean, all those parties hosted by the Malfoys are the worst." Daphne responded with a slight frown before putting on a neutral mask once more just like Harry as they walked through the alley towards their favorite wand maker's shop.

Both Harry and Daphne walked with relative silence. Knockturn Alley may seem a dark and dodgy place, but there is one thing the barely teenagers could count on, and that is Knockturn's residents just have as much respect for power and authority as anyone else normally seen around Diagon Alley. Only difference is how they define the words power and authority.

Besides that, Knockturn Alley's residents have one simple rule; 'Mind your own business'. Of course, it also helps that the kids have their own personal guard shadowing them and heading off any type of threat before they become apparent.

"Here we are…" Harry said upon their arrival at their favorite shop in the alley, "After you Daph…" he said as he held the door for Daphne.

"Why thank you Harry…" She responded.

A bespectacled bald old yet fit man stood behind the shop counter reading a rather thick tome. He looked up when he hears the bell on his door indicated there were costumers, "Ah, Mr. Potter, Ms. Greengrass. I was hoping you'd stop by sooner, your parents after all have entrusted me with the creation of your wands."

Both kids beamed, always happy at the man's straightforwardness and never have to waste much of their time. "Yes, that is our purpose for today Mr. Measures." Harry answered.

"Well, let's start with you Mr. Potter. And see if we get the same results as the previous years. I must say, I have been looking forward for when I would actually be making your wands. Only the two of you have always been able to feel a connection to some of my rarer cores that has never been used since their acquirement."

The process was simple enough; two key components will be presented. At which one would follow a distinct pull of their magic towards the wand wood and wand core that would match them.

Harry already knew that he, while not entirely impossible, was quite unusual of choices at wand woods as he was equally inclined to the pulls of Yew and Ebony. Checking to make sure that he still have the same affinity towards said wand woods and confirming he does. Mr. Measures led him to the storage part of the shop to look for his wand cores.

The previous wand cores he seemed to have an affinity to were a century old basilisk fang and a thunderbird's feather. Of course his and Daphne's wand cores always changed every year which the old wand maker assured them to be natural as it is also natural for them to be solidly inclined to the said wand woods since the old wand maker met and was promptly fond of them.

As he entered the storage room, Harry sighed, apparently he felt a stronger pull from yet another different types of wand cores and his affinity for the previously mentioned cores relatively weakened. He closed his eyes, the magic guided him to the supposed core or cores; he was quite confused upon finding the preservation drawer that contained only two jet-black feathers. A mere glance would have suggested that he was looking at raven's feathers but upon closer inspection, the feathers were oddly Phoenix feathers in nature.

Mr. Measures approach Harry when he was sure that the boy had found his suitable cores. His eyes grew wide for just a moment unnoticed by Harry. Mr. Measures stated, "You simply are fascinating my boy, tail-feathers of a Shadow Phoenix. A more elusive type of Phoenix as they have almost never shown themselves, quite the contrast to their more common counterpart the fire Phoenixes. Needless to say that raw ingredients and tail-feathers from phoenixes are still, always so rare." Mentally patted the boy in the back, he was afraid he was going to wait yet a few more decades for his rare ingredients to be used. You don't come by great witches and wizards very often on Mr. Measures' opinion.

Harry nodded and turned to exit the storage room.

"Daph, you're next. Is your wand wood still Hazel?"

"Yes, same as the last time. Although I'm quite curious what core I'll be pulled to now. Did yours change?" she asked in return.

Harry nodded, "Shadow Phoenix tail-feathers, apparently they're more elusive than the other elemental Phoenixes. What was your last core? Magical-Serpent's scale?"

"The last we were here, yes it was. Perhaps I'll get the basilisk fang now or the thunderbird's feather, or it could stay the same, although you know I always follow after you, come to think of it; we still haven't figured out why that can be."

"No we haven't, I think go read up on it in Mr. Measures' library. Catch up when you're done, I'm pretty sure we'll be here for a few hours while he works on our wands." Harry said, walking towards the shop's small library.

"See you in a bit." She chimed.

* * *

Daphne and Harry waited for almost three hours in Mr. Measures' small library. Any normal eleven year olds would have gone restless by then and proceeded to either whine or run the around until they drop from exhaustion. But not Harry and Daphne, being exceptionally curious the both of them, Mr. Measures' collection of rare tomes could have possibly placated the two of them for at least a couple of days.

"Ah there you two are. I see the two of you have once again devoured some of my books." Mr. Measures commented upon finding Harry and Daphne pouring over individual books.

They both looked up finding the old man holding three boxes containing their wands. "Let's start with you Mr. Potter." Mr. Measures said handing Harry both his wands.

Upon grasping both wands, Harry felt a rush of power as his own magic greeted the brother wands on his hands. He turns to find a grinning Mr. Measures, "Fascinating! Now I don't have to ask you to do great things as you most certainly will Mr. Potter." The old wand maker complimented.

"Now you Ms. Greengrass." He said handing Daphne her wand.

Much like how Harry reacted with his wands, Daphne felt a rush of power as her magic greeted the wand indicating it a perfect match. Daphne beamed at the connection with her magic and her wand.

"Right then, Mr. Potter, your wands' descriptions. Yew and Shadow Phoenix tail-feather, 12 inches, good for powerful offensive magic and transfiguration. Ebony and Shadow Phoenix tail-feather, 10 and half inches, enhances defense type magic and charms."

"As for yours Ms. Greengrass, Hazel and Magical-Serpent's scale, 11 and a half inches, adequate in counteractive curses, offensive and defensive magic."

"Now why don't you two head on home, it's getting dark out." Mr. Measures advised, "Oh, one more thing, your wand holsters. I assume, your godfather has already given you one wand holster Mr. Potter?"

"Yes sir, I never did tell him that Daphne and I have been sampling your wand materials since we were eight." Harry said with a mischievous grin.

"Ah, but of course. Your godfather was simply making sure you two weren't armed when you go to those parties. Might cause quite a ruckus if you did." Mr. Measures said and chuckled.

"We could've gotten away with it…" Daphne deadpanned. "Anyway, thank you Mr. Measures. Harry and I will be going now; may we use your fireplace?"

"Of course dear, right this way." He then leads the two to his fireplace.

* * *

After Harry and Daphne went home to their respective homes; they spent much of their remaining time, before September first, reading their school books. As for Harry's case, reviewing some of his Beauxbaton Elementary's notes and books as well as brushing up on his spell work now that he has his wands, he can finally join his godfather Sirius and his uncle Remus in the Manor's training room.

Summer sessions of the Wizengamot are at a conclusion and has Sirius going back and forth in the Ministry, thus leaving mostly just Harry, Remus and the house elves at the Manor. They don't mind as much since it's basically a routine by then although it does give Sirius the trouble of keeping up stock of interesting books up his Manor as well as keep up the request of giving Harry access to the Potter vaults before his majority. The latter being harder to accomplish, even though the Potter Lordship ring has been hanging on his godson's neck ever since it accepted him as the rightful heir.

* * *

It's close to midnight of the thirty-first of August, the night before Harry would be heading to Hogwarts. As much as he'd hate to admit it, he's quite excited of going. Not because it would be his first time going to magic school like most his age; he's been attending Beauxbaton's elementary after all; it's because going to Hogwarts would give him more connection to his late parents.

Ever since he can remember, Padfoot and Moony have been regaling him of stories and even memories of his parents. Even his favorite potions and occlumency master Severus Snape has shared with him a rare insight of his mother before she went Hogwarts. But there's always that nagging need for him to have some more connection with his parents.

Harry lay lost in his thoughts when he felt a presence just outside his bedroom door. He was immediately on high alert as it was a presence he did not recognize and made a grab for his wands on his desk but found they weren't there.

Not one to panic, Harry gathered his magic and prepared to let out a magical burst to alert Sirius and Remus if they didn't already know of the intrusion in their home.

His bedroom door burst into wooden splinters and paused suspended in midair. Behind his door was a frail looking old man in a black suit and black trench coat, not a typical wizarding outfit for british magical. Harry also noted that the old man was holding an odd looking cane.

Feeling the ominous power radiating from the old, Harry decided to observe for now as the old man approach without a care, not a even a hint of hostility.

"Hmmm, curious, I'd had thought you'd be frailer." The old man said in an even tone.

"Why would that be sir, if you don't mind my asking?" Harry responded with an equally even tone.

"Oh? You didn't know? But of course, your species are in some ways a lot stronger and more resilient than humans."

"Humans? Did you mean muggles?" Harry asked getting more curious and a little bit worried when he discovered he's frozen in place.

The old man chuckled, "A relative term. On to pressing matters, I hardly think you'd like to keep on living… with a parasite attached to your forehead."

Harry barely held his gasped, his head swam with ideas in reference to what the old man had just said, all ideas he come up with all relating to soul magic he'd once read from the Black library, although of course 'parasite' could relate to anything.

Seeing Harry's understanding, the old man proceeded, "Now hold still, this'll just take a second." And with that said, Harry barely kept his eyes open as a searing pain emanated on his head, particularly his scar as the old man held up one hand and black smoke was gathering on his palm forming into a ball. From what he can tell through his barely opened eye lids, the black smoke was coming from his forehead right where his scar is.

After a few seconds, the pain dulled considerably and Harry barely kept up consciousness when he heard the old man leave with this parting words, "Now sleep young one. You may keep _its' _abilities, I shall collect the others when you've found them." With that Harry fell asleep.

* * *

September 1, 1991

Harry woke with a start. Glancing towards his door, he was pretty sure that just last night that structure was in splinters. Of course magic could have fixed that. To clear his confusion, Harry quickly delved into his mindscape and quickly checks his living memories and placed them in contrast with his subconscious mind or the usual nightmares he has since.

He sighs in relief as he finds out that what had happened was merely a dream. He silently berates himself for not performing his occlumency exercises before going to bed. Performing a quick tempus spell, he finds out that it's only five in the morning. Granted that's usually the time he wakes up in the morning.

Having nothing better to do, Harry decides to head to the training room to brush up on his spell casting. Since he had his wands, he's been practicing with them every day. And judging by his and Daphne's radio silence, he can only assume that his best friend is doing the same. They can be immature that way seeing as they're testing out what they had learned from all those books had kept them occupied from each other for almost a month.

_"Incendio… Flagro… Ustulo…"_ Harry utters three varying types of conflagrating spells in moderate succession using his Yew wand causing the room's training dummy to end up in a pile of ash.

A low whistle and a clap came from Remus standing by the room's entrance, "Wow cub, you are not by any chance planning on burning down Hogwarts are you?" He teased, seeing Harry perform a first year spell coupled with a succession of post fourth year level spells left him once again in awe. Not many eleven year olds could perform those spells and not keel down panting from a slight magical exhaustion.

"Morning Moony, what brings you here?" Harry greeted as he walked towards the back to get a drink of water.

"I was hoping to beat Missy to the kitchens today, but you know…"

Harry chuckled, "Beat you again did she? I don't suppose you'll take our advice and stop trying to outrace a house-elf to the kitchens every morning…"

"I know, I know cub, I should just ask her if I could lend a hand. That's what you do. Anyway, are you all packed for school?" Remus asked.

"Yes, I just needed to burn off some extra energy. For some reason, I feel like my magic is suddenly… I don't know, somewhat overflowing, like my core grew twice its size overnight."

"Oh? No wonder you're not keeling over panting performing those spells earlier, heck I don't think that dummy can repair itself anymore." Remus commented seeing the training dummy hasn't returned to its original state. And it's even one of those expensive ones Sirius bought especially charmed to repair itself.

Harry slightly frowned when he looked at the training dummy he decimated; it does look like the charms on it are having trouble putting it back together. He decides to call another one, _"Stupefy….. Everbero… Perfringo… Perforo…"_

Harry breathes deep; having his magical level to the way he's used to is much more settling. He's just gonna have to get used to somehow having more access to his magic than before, but he certainly didn't feel that much magic inside him weeks ago.

"I best get ready for the day, later uncle Moony." Harry waved as he left to prepare for their trip to King's Cross station to go to platform nine and three-quarters.

Remus shakes his head and chuckles after waving Harry off. Only James' and Lily's son could perform advanced spells for his year and nonchalantly leave the training room to take a bath, leaving a badly beaten training dummy by a stunning charm and bludgeoning hex with a gaping hole on its chest courtesy of a piercing and burrowing spell.

* * *

"You excited going back to school Harry?" Sirius asked as he and Harry along with Remus are seeing Harry off to school.

"Well… it won't be the same as Beauxbatons, but… I'm sure it'll be great." Harry answered.

"Hmmm… You don't sound too thrilled to me, do I have to prank it out you cub?" Sirius said with a goofy grin.

Harry snorted, "Oh please Padfoot, we both know if you had any pranking bone in you left I'd have learn from it by now."

Remus barked out a laugh and patted Sirius, "Padfoot, kid does have a point."

Sirius groaned and lowered his head in defeat, "You wound me cub, but at least you have your mother's tongue… insults hurt like a searing knife." He then dramatically grasped his chest above his heart.

"Stop being so over-dramatic old man." Harry deadpanned, adding more insult to injury… so to speak.

"Goodbye Padfoot, Moony, see you on Christmas!" Harry said as he walked towards the train.

Remus, still in the throes of his laughter managed to wave goodbye at Harry while Sirius reminded, "Use the mirrors Harry, and don't waste your time with the owl post."

With a wave back, Harry went inside the train, checking his pockets for his shrunken trunk and finding it in place; he proceeded to find and empty compartment right around the middle car of the Hogwarts' express.

* * *

Having arrived almost an hour early, Harry decides to work on his occlumency shield while keeping his book about it in hand.

Feeling like he's been working for hours on his mindscape, Harry figures it's been around forty-five minutes outside and he vaguely hears a knocking, and then sliding open on his compartment door. Harry looks up to find a gangling boy with a freckled face and fiery red hair.

Recognizing the prominent facial features that can only belong to one family Harry hazards a guess, "Can I help you with anything uhmm, Weasley I assume?"

"Oh… err… Yeah, uh… Can I sit here? My brothers didn't want me around and this is the first less cramped compartment I could find. Oh and I'm Ron by the way, Ron Weasley." Ron said as he held out his hand.

Harry takes Ron's friendly gesture and returns it, "Harry Potter," No use stating his full name as with just two of them, he sees that flash of pity and mandated concern that the human emotional matrix seems so adamant to feel every time a child of his age or older knows who he is. Well, just one of the cons of being the son of the saviors of the wizarding world from the darkest wizard of all times. At least that's what the official story the wizarding world was led to believe, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

Harry had to give it to Ron, at least he took less time noticing his own rudeness, "Oh, uhmm… sorry about the uhh." Ron stuttered out.

Harry waved it off, "Nah it's ok, I get that look a lot. Anyway, come on in I don't mind."

"Thanks," Ron said entering the compartment with his trunk in tow. The gangly looking eleven year then struggled to lift his trunk on the baggage compartment overhead but could only lift it over his head until Harry stood up close to his height, only with the right body proportions, he helped Ron pushed his trunk into the baggage compartment.

"Thanks mate. Those course books are heavy as… err… never mind." Ron said as they both sat down.

"No problem Weasley, though I recommend you ask one of your brothers to put a feather weight charm on your luggage next time. I understand you have an older brother that's supposed to be a fifth year now right?" Harry inquired.

"Yeah, but Percy's been a pompous git ever since he got made into a Prefect. No, that's actually wrong. He was already a git, he just got worse. And I didn't want to trouble the twins…" Ron answered and was slightly embarrassed of how he just opened up about his family.

"I see, not to worry Weasley. I'm just aware of your family because my godfather and your father have had meetings at the manor in the past."

"Dad's told me about that…" Ron scrounged up his face in thought, "Something about slowly catching up magical Britain along its magical neighbors by… bringing in magically enhanced muggle… err… what was it called? tekilogy… I think…"

"Technology; yes, quite right. I actually brought some of them to test out… on your father's authorization of course."

After their short conversation, both boys slipped into relative silence. Ron, desperately trying to hide himself from being seen through the compartment window probably hiding from his mother, whilst Harry was wondering what Daphne was taking so long for until he saw his blonde friend just close to the platform barrier; presumably finished talking to her mother and father as she was now consoling her clingy little sister Astoria.

Little 'Tori' had always amused Harry and treated her as his own little sibling whenever he would come over to the Greengrass Manor home to visit Daphne.

Glancing at the station's clock, it's a quarter to eleven. Seeing as Daphne had met up with Tracey, her other best friend besides Harry, and Blaize, their mutual friend; he figured he could find them later if they happened to miss the compartment he was in.

* * *

**A/N: In anticipation of the questions that may arise: firstly, Shadow Phoenix wand cores; to be honest, I just like the concept of having different kinds of Phoenixes, and not to mention Harry will have brother wands fighting together instead of against each other. As for the old guy invading a little boy's room (Disregard any arising innuendo), well I just wanted the scar Horcrux out of the way, it's annoying. lastly, what's good 90's music device to test out? a walkman? Anyway, same drill; I leave it to the reader's discretion. **


	5. Best day so far

**A/N: Chapter Warning: I will be using canon setup for sorting simply because I feel it'll fit my plot. Majority of the chapter is Hermione centric. it will be vaguely explained why she landed Gryffindor. Anyway, enjoy. I hope. :D**

**Chapter is unBeta'd. Beta'd version will be reposted with date of reposting.**

* * *

September first is probably one of Hermione Jean Granger's favorite days simply because it's the day she would be embarking on a journey into a whole new world. A world filled with endless possibilities, new things to learn as well as new culture and customs to adapt to. That latter part is what's giving her that butterflies in the stomach feeling at the moment.

Hermione and her parents met up with the other 'muggleborns' and their parents as well. Then Professor McGonagall led them to the entry way to the special platform for the Hogwarts' Express at King's Cross station.

Platform nine and three-quarters was interesting enough and may have given the children license to have a bit of fun with their parents' varying facial expressions.

After they said their goodbyes to their own parents however, Hermione was a bit sad to note that her fellow muggleborns separated to each find their own way. She would have liked to have had some company she's familiar with on the train ride to Hogwarts since the Professor was kind enough to inform them that the train ride last about six to seven hours and that the train always left at exactly eleven o'clock.

A spark of inspiration then flashed within Hermione as she remembered the boy that had helped pick some of her extra books and paid for them as well. So she went off to look for the emerald eyed boy she now knew as Harry Potter, as she had read about him on one of the books he recommended and one of the books she have already bought on the first visit to Diagon Alley. _Harry Potter, the only child of the saviors of Britain's Wizarding community._ She recounted as she lifted her trunk into the train and silently thanked Professor McGonagall for putting a feather weight charm on their trunks.

Of course, her trunk may be light but she still has to pull the thing through the train's narrow hallway as she sets about hoping to find the emerald-eyed boy.

Focused on her self-imposed task at hand, she doesn't notice the pale-blonde haired boy, she and the other muggleborns had the unfortunate opportunity to meet at Diagon Alley, coming from the other direction. Obviously the boy didn't notice her as well since he was walking with his head held so high; one can sneak a peek up his nose.

The pale-blonde haired boy and Hermione's trunk collided, tripping the boy with his two companions fumbling to pick their friend up, "Watch were you're going!" the boy spat and looked Hermione over trying to discern if she's of any importance to tread lightly on. Apparently he didn't deem her worthy of even an ounce of civility and proceeded to insult her with his next words, "You filthy little mud…"

"Malfoy if you are quite done loitering on the train's hallway, I'd like to get moving now." Said by a blonde girl with a cold and impassive expression. Hermione notes that the girls seem a bit familiar to her.

She silently sighed in relief at having been saved from the impending insult. The words themselves didn't matter much to her or rather to those who had grown from the non-magical side. But the boy's voice and tone wasn't exactly on a private level and could probably be heard through closed compartment doors.

The boy having found a new target, sneered at the blonde girl and begrudgingly greeted, "Greengrass… I'm surprised you aren't attached at the hip with your…"

Daphne cut him off again, "No need to worry yourself about that Malfoy; I was just off to find him. Now, if you don't mind, _move…_ Before things get… out of hand." She threatened in a menacing tone without so much as changing her impassive expression.

What was even more impressive in Hermione's point of view was that the blonde girl had drawn her wand out of nowhere and was promptly flanked by an auburn-haired girl and a black boy, both with the same cold expressions. Well, the auburn-haired girl had a manic grin that looked really menacing on an eleven year old.

The boy called Malfoy matched with a sneer but eventually walked off to leave and spat out a greeting to the new comers as he passed them, "Zabini… Davis…"

Daphne's expression visibly softened and stated, "Well at least he hasn't forgotten his manners. Shall we?" She said as she walked towards the direction Hermione was headed.

Still recovering from seeing the confrontation, Hermione observes the three and was bit surprised when the blonde girl turned back to her, "Want to come along? We can share a compartment as soon as we find our friend."

Hermione barely saw the black boy wrinkle his nose before his expression goes back to a neutral one; she glanced at the auburn-haired girl with a friendly smile, she took it as a welcome invitation. "Yes… uhmm, are you sure it's no trouble?" she asked just to make sure.

"Not at all, miss?" Daphne responded cracking a warm smile.

"Oh, Hermione Granger." She held out a hand.

Daphne mirrored the gesture, "Daphne Greengrass. And these two are…"

Prompted to introduce themselves both mirrored the gesture as well while stating their names, "Blaise Zabini,"

"Tracey Davis, pleasure to meet you Hermione and don't mind that snotty kid Malfoy earlier, he can be a…"

Daphne politely cut her friend off, "Enough Tracey, I'm sure Granger observed enough to not acknowledge Malfoy's existence… ever."

She took the hint and couldn't agree more; Hermione nodded in reply.

"Well, shall we? Harry's not going to find himself." Daphne walked off leading them with Hermione walking behind Tracey, and Blaise being the eleven year old gentleman that he was, brought up the rear.

Tracey giggled at Daphne's offhand comment, "Oh come on Daphne. You just miss him not seeing him for a month. I told you to put the book and wand down to floo to his manor, but no… you wouldn't listen."

"If you're quite done Tracey… no one likes a nagging firstie." Daphne shot back.

Tracey pouted but quieted down.

As much as Hermione enjoyed the obvious best friends' playful banter, something clicked when she remembered why Daphne looked familiar. Daphne was the blonde girl with the very same Harry Potter she was set out to look for and formally thank for the books.

The four of them walked in relative silence. Each time they passed a compartment; Daphne would glance at its occupants and continue on walking. One more thing Hermione observed is that she was the only one pulling her own trunk. Remembering that the three she's with most likely came from a magical family, they probably have their school trunks shrunk and in their pockets at the moment.

Right around what looked like the middle car of the Hogwarts' express, the train slowly lurks forward and they can hear farewells being shouted from the compartment windows. Then Daphne stops outside a compartment and gently knocks on the glass of the compartment door.

As soon as the glass door slid open, Hermione didn't think it was even humanly possible to move like Daphne did when she shot like a blonde human projectile and threw herself into a hug with a boy with unruly black hair and brilliant emerald eyes.

Harry chuckled, "Miss you too Daph…"

Daphne hummed and mumbled a response on Harry's chest. After she pulled out from the embrace, she turned to Hermione and casually said, "You didn't see that."

Hermione looked up from the interesting spec she momentarily found on her shoes; "See what?" she feigned ignorance.

Daphne grinned and said, "Good girl."

Harry looked toward their other friends, "Tracey," he greeted and received a much more subtle hug from auburn haired girl.

"Zabini," Harry nodded at the black boy and held out a hand for their usual greeting.

"Potter," Blaise mirrored the gesture.

"Harry Potter, call me Harry. And it's good to see you again Miss?" Harry held a hand to Hermione after her and Daphne's interestingly playful exchange.

"Hermione Granger… uhmm… Good to see you again too. Oh and thank you for helping me choose the books… and uhmm, paying for them." Hermione mirrored the gesture and very faintly blushed at the contact.

"Not at all, have you found a compartment? It's just me and Weasley in here, there's enough space for all of us."

"Oh! Neville's right next door, Blaise and I will just sit here with Neville." Tracey said pulling Blaise with her and they entered the compartment next to Harry's.

"Well, we best get seated, allow me Granger." Harry said as he offered to take Hermione's trunk and put it overhead to the baggage compartment.

"Thank you Harry." Hermione responded and let Daphne guide her to sit on the side opposite a boy with flaming red hair while Harry proceeded to sit with the boy after putting her trunk on the baggage compartment.

* * *

The four of them then spent the next couple hours having light conversations; with mostly Hermione getting to know as much as she can of how magical children lived prior to going to Hogwarts. Needless to say she's simply amazed by Harry as he already has about six years of magical training before even starting Hogwarts. And she liked how Daphne's parents made their daughters attend muggle school from preschool to primary school and magically educated them during the summers.

She also found out that Harry and Daphne have known each other ever since they can remember. Their conversations went on until after the snack cart passed by; Harry got himself some cauldron cakes and some pumpkin pasties for Daphne; while she took the suggestion of the two and tried the sugar quill which she developed a liking to after her first. The redhead got himself some chocolate frogs which Hermione could have sworn was squirming away from his grip. Their conversation went on up until they got the topic of Hogwarts.

"What house do you reckon you'll be in?" Ron asked.

Hermione piped up at the question having read from her _Hogwarts: The four founders_ book, one of the books that Harry picked for her, about the legacy that the founders left to continue their work; to sort the children that went through the castle doors as they have sorted them themselves when they were around.

"Oooh, I've read about that. We'll be sorted into four houses named after the founders themselves, with every house representing the very traits the four founders hoped their students to have." Hermione enthusiastically recalled from her reading.

Daphne softly giggled at the brunette's enthusiasm, "Granger, calm down… Breathe… atta girl."

The boys chuckled, Harry more so than Ron.

"Sorry, I'm just so excited! I bet I've got loads to catch up on." Hermione said.

"Understandable Granger… What's wrong Harry?" Daphne asked when she glanced at Harry and saw his worried expression that's more devoid of emotion than usual, even for her.

"Hmmm? Oh… I was just thinking. About the sorting, I just hope I can make them proud." Harry said, the latter part in barely above a whisper. He allowed the silence for just a moment that was barely noticed by their other companions except Daphne.

"Anyway, what house do you think you'll be in Weasley?" Harry asked to get back into discussion.

"Oh, well most of my family has always been on Gryffindor, so I'll probably end up there too." Ron sheepishly answered his own question. He isn't much used to the formality of their interaction unlike most of magically raised children his generation, since he along with his brothers and baby sister have been homeschooled up until they get their letters from Hogwarts.

Harry nodded but gave no indication that he'd be saying the possible houses that he'd get sorted into.

Daphne takes over and asks Hermione, "What about you Granger? From the sound of it, you seem to have memorized a book or two by heart. Perhaps you'll get sorted into Ravenclaw."

For Hermione, even though she had gotten over her skepticism and fully accepted the existence of magic, everything still seemed surreal. "Well I suppose Ravenclaw would be quite nice to be in. It did say that Rowena Ravenclaw favored intelligence, knowledge and wit above anything else."

"Hmmm? I can't help feel like there's a 'but' in there somewhere." Daphne said to gauge the girl beside her.

Hermione laughed nervously at being caught, "Well… I… not that I wouldn't prefer books… uhmm knowledge… but I…" She stuttered.

Wanting to know if she's reading Hermione right, Daphne hazards a guess, "Harry? It looks like our fellow little bookworm has a thing for adventure…" She said with a touch of teasing in her tone.

Harry and Daphne both chuckled at Hermione's slight pink tinge that rose on her cheeks; until Ron asked, "So, what about you two?"

Ron involuntarily gulped when Harry's and Daphne's expression both became impassive, though Daphne's colder than Harry's. Daphne answered, "Probably Slytherin or Ravenclaw…" She then leaned in towards Harry in a conspiratorial manner and mock whispered ensuring the redhead would hear, "Be sure to infiltrate Gryffindor as deep as you can Harry, out of all of us, you've got the best chance of getting placed there."

Ron whimpered; he's heard all about Slytherin from his brothers. How most dark wizards even You-know-who was from that house. How they're very nasty when it comes to quidditch, no regard for the rules. How the house rivalry between the lions and the snakes had gone on for centuries regardless of their seemingly unbiased heads of houses. Though Percy did say that their only redeeming feature is their head of house which is the current potions master, indifferent he may seem to all other houses except his own, but he does make sure that what he taught sticks no matter it takes. Of course Percy made that argument, so he can't be sure.

"Oh… uh… would you excuse me… I've got to… uh… go to the loo." Ron stuttered out and quickly left the compartment.

As soon as the redhead closed the compartment door, Harry cracked a grin while Daphne giggles. Hermione asks the two, "What was that about?"

Daphne smirked. "Nothing to worry about Granger." Casting a quick tempus spell, "Hmmm, we're only halfway there. I'd like to take a nap." She said in a dulcet tone whilst looking at Harry with slightly pouted lips and wider strikingly electric-blue eyes.

Harry rolled his eyes at his best friend's puppy-dog eye look, and sighed, "Fine Daphne, you may…" before he could even finish, Daphne leaped from her seat beside Hermione and sat next to Harry to rest her head on his shoulder as she snuggles up to him for her nap.

"Guess there's nothing to do for the rest of the trip. If you need anything Granger, just poke me in the ribs, I'll be in my mindscape." Harry said as he too closed his eyes and almost instantly delved into his mindscape before Hermione could ask.

Remembering the term from a specific book that the boy in front of her had recommended; Hermione reached up for her trunk, thankful that the feather weight charm was still somewhat in effect; she grabbed the specific book in mind and practiced some of the recommended exercises inside.

* * *

Hermione can't remember exactly when she had fallen asleep but thankful enough that she had fallen asleep in a comfortable position or someone had propped her that way for comfort. She suspected on the latter as she felt someone gently shook into consciousness.

"Granger… Granger… time to wake up, we're almost there." Daphne softly whispered into the bushy-haired witch's ear as she gently shook her shoulders.

Hermione's eyes fluttered open and she was greeted by Daphne clad in her Hogwarts' robes.

"Oh good, you're awake. I thought you were in your mindscape as well." Daphne said as she helped Hermione sit upright and she took her seat beside the recently awoken witch.

"Oh no, I haven't gotten to that part yet, I suspect that's pretty advanced."

"Nothing you can't achieve with diligence Granger." Daphne said with a serious air, making the bushy-haired witch smile in earnest.

A voice sounded throughout the train: "We will be arriving in Hogsmeade in five minutes, Please leave your luggage in the train, and it will be taken to the school separately."

As if on cue, Harry's eyes open and greeted the two girls. "Hello you two. Daph, how was your nap?"

"Restful. Did you hear the conductor?"

With a nod, Harry pulled out his shrunken trunk from his pocket and restored it to original size then he fished out for his school robes to put over his muggle clothing.

"Aren't you going to change in your proper school uniform?" Hermione asked Harry.

Daphne answered her, "No need, first night's always the sorting ceremony and an opening feast. All we really need is the robes."

"Oh, that makes sense." Hermione said and stood up to get her trunk, return her book inside and retrieve her robes. Until she found out that the feather weight charm has worn off.

Sensing her dilemma, Daphne flicked her wrist to summon her wand from her wrist holster and reapply the feather weight charm.

"Thanks," Hermione said with a grateful smile, as she too puts on her robes over her current clothing.

Not long after, the train slowed to a stop. Their fellow students getting out of their own compartments to disembark the train, they followed suit when three of their fellow first years passed by; two of whom Hermione recognizes from earlier as Blaise and Tracey, another boy with a somewhat chubby but proportionate physique.

"Neville," Harry greeted with a nod, "You doing alright? You don't look too good…" He asked when he noticed Neville has a worried, almost guilty expression on his face.

"Oh. Hello Harry. Yeah, just couldn't get much sleep during the ride here." Neville replied.

The two boys continued to converse as they walked leading the group with Hermione and Daphne behind the two while Tracey and Blaise brought up the rear.

As they exited the train, they are greeted with a comforting breeze and the six of them headed to a booming voice not a distance away, calling for all first years to form up.

While they walked towards the booming voice, Hermione asked Daphne, "What happened to the redheaded boy earlier, I didn't notice him come back in the compartment to get his robes?"

"Weasley? He came in much earlier to get his robes, and then went out again."

Hermione nodded and shrugged it off. As they neared the voice calling for the first years, Hermione barely suppressed a gasp when they are greeted by a towering man. He looked to be about twice as tall as a normal grown adult and nearly five times as wide; Hermione however was rest assured when the man's face didn't seem hostile and even seemed to be smiling under his dark mane.

"Firs' years! Over here, c'mon now form up. All here? Good… The name's Rubeus Hagrid, keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts." Hagrid introduced himself when all the first years formed up in front of him. "Now, if you would follow me." He added as he led the first years on a path that opened up to a great black lake.

Hermione is simply amazed upon entering the bank opening up to a great black lake. The six of them stayed together, still with Harry and the boy he called Neville were in front of them as she and Daphne were still in the middle.

She heard a few gasps and sounds of awe as they caught sight of Hogwarts castle across the great lake resting on top of a hill in all its majesty, and she really couldn't blame them as she too gasp at the sight.

"No more than four in a boat." Hagrid said which brought back their attention to the boats lined up on the shore.

Tracey leaned forward to ensure Hermione hears her, "You go on with them Hermione." She then turns to Daphne and added, "We'll go in that boat beside yours." Then she and Blaise made a beeline towards the boat that's beside the one Harry and Neville had chosen and were now helping the girls to climb into.

Hagrid then checked if they had all gotten on a boat and confirmed they had. He himself having a boat on his own, ordered with a booming voice, "Forward!" the boats got moving at a comfortable pace towards the castle passage via the great lake.

As they glided across the smooth surface of the great lake, Daphne whispered to Hermione, "It just gets better from here on out Granger, so I suggest you breathe."

Hermione giggled upon hearing the blonde girl tease her, but to be honest, she really can't blame her; she can only imagine how wide her eyes by now looking at the whole scene that is Hogwarts.

Their boat cruise may have been short, but it was definitely serene and somehow elated their excitement as they got off the boats. Then they are led through a passageway, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass. Walking up a flight of stone steps, they stood in front of a huge oak door.

With a huge fist, Hagrid knocked three times. A moment's pause, the door open's to a familiar face. The tall black-haired witch clad in emerald green robes, Professor McGonagall, the first witch that Hermione met when she delivered her letter and gathered them along with the other muggleborns for orientation before they were brought to Diagon Alley.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall." Said Hagrid

"Thank you Hagrid, I'll take it from here."

* * *

The huge oak doors are opened, and the first years followed the Professor into a huge entrance hall. All the while silence is kept in respect of a Hogwarts' Professor.

"Welcome to Hogwarts." Professor McGonagall addressed to them. She then proceeded to explain of the sorting ceremony before they are to take their seats in the Great Hall. "You will be sorted into four houses, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. During your entire stay here, your house will be like your family. You will have your classes with your house, sleep in your house dormitories and spend your free time in your house common room. While you are here, your triumphs will earn you house points where as rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most point will be awarded the house cup."

"The sorting ceremony will begin shortly. I suggest you smarten yourselves up, I shall return when we are ready for you." With that, Professor McGonagall left.

A moment's silence is followed by hushed murmurs on how they are to be sorted. While all the hushed chatter is going on, Hermione is beckoned by Tracey to follow Harry and Daphne to a near corner where they can dodge the chatter and follow the Professor's advice to smarten themselves up.

Their group shared a companionable silence as they idly listened to their fellow first years' chatter. Some occasional sorting related questions did get their attention.

"How are we going to get sorted?" asked a black boy who Hermione recognizes as he is a fellow muggleborn.

"I don't know, some kind of test maybe. Fred says it's painful but I can't be sure if it's true." The redhead from earlier, Weasley, answered.

Out of the six of them, Hermione scowled but only for a second and Tracey giggled at that answer. Gaining nothing more from the chatter around them, Hermione decided to while the time away recalling everything she's read about Hogwarts from her book Hogwarts: A History.

Moments later, Hermione was drawn out from her thoughts by gasps of her fellow first years; and she would too if she wasn't at least expecting that since the magical world, a whole new world of irrationalities, well until she gets used to them anyway, that ghosts would be pretty much a part of this world as well.

They didn't have to exchange pleasantries with the specters however since it was at that moment that Professor McGonagall had returned and instructed. "Now form a line, and follow me."

They moved together as the line formed and followed Professor McGonagall into the Great Hall.

Amazement is clearly seen on each first year student's face albeit with varying intensities of it. _'It's bewitched, to look like the night's sky'_. A thought that runs through Hermione's head upon remembering what she had read from Hogwarts: A History. She would have voiced it out too had she not caught what Weasley, who was apparently walking in front of Harry, grumbled.

"What the bloody hell is that old tattered hat for?"

As if on cue to answer Weasley's question, the hat twitched and a rip appeared near the brim. The hat began to sing. Every first year's attention was directed towards the magical artifact as it sang its' thousand year old purpose for being.

Its conclusion is greeted with much applause. "Now, when I call your name; you will come forward and you will be sorted into your houses." Professor McGonagall announced as she was unrolling a scroll of parchment.

With the first name called, "Abbott, Hannah!"

A pink faced girl with blonde pigtails nervously walked forward, put on the hat and sat. The Hall waited for a moment's pause until, "HUFFLEPUFF!" shout the hat.

As soon as the sorting began, Hermione couldn't explain it but up until moments ago, she hadn't felt nervous at all. She didn't have to worry about how the sorting will be done since she already knew from one of the books that Harry had recommended that day at Flourish and Blotts that the founders had imbued Godric Gryffindor's very own wizard's hat with magic to be able to sort Hogwarts' future students into their houses long after they have passed.

Two names followed after the first Hufflepuff was sorted, but Hermione can only register the ringing in her ears as the loud cheering coming from one house gradually settled down.

She felt a bit torn at the moment, from wanting to let the hat decide on which house she would go to or if she would put up refute and risk being sorted into either Hufflepuff or Gryffindor. Whatever she decides would surely greatly affect how her life will be in the magical world.

So engrossed in her musings; Hermione slightly jumped when a familiar name was called, "Greengrass, Daphne!"

Hermione slightly frowned from how deep she was mulling over the sorting that she didn't even notice a 'Davis, Tracey' being called or passed her for that matter since Tracey was behind her. Come to think of it, shouldn't she have gone first if the names were being called out in alphabetical order? Or was it? She must have been too deep in her thoughts to have missed even that fact. Hermione brought her attention back to the sorting where Daphne sat on the four-legged stool with her head almost entirely covered by the hat; "SLYTHERIN!" the hat shouted.

Daphne took off the hat and walked towards her house with a side glance to where they stood and Hermione noticed that she had a sad smile on her face. She glanced at Harry who's now stood in front of her and he too has sad smile on his face. If she were to interpret it, Harry almost seemed apologetic with his smile whilst Daphne's is somewhat longing.

"Granger, Hermione!" Professor McGonagall called.

Hermione almost jumped again from being pulled from her thoughts when she was called. She nervously walked toward the sorting hat but not before she passes Harry with his words that almost washed away and calmed her nerves, well almost.

"Good luck Granger, guess I'll see you around." Harry said as she passed him.

She gave him a grateful nod and steadily made her way towards the four-legged stool. As she sat, even with her bushy locks of hair, the sorting hat dropped to cover her eyes.

_'Hmmm, a rich young mind; a lot of enthusiasm I see; and such thirst for knowledge. Surely you know that there is only one house for you young one.'_ said the sorting hat's voice in her head.

Hermione sighed. She knew which house the sorting hat was referring to, of course there's only one house for such a bookworm like her. What better house to put her in other than Ravenclaw, where wit, intelligence and the thirst for learning would thrive.

_'Yes, quite right Ms. Granger. Yet I sense that is not what you desire… let's see… Ah yes, I see… you desire that of which you have rarely had. An understandable dilemma of children your age; very well, you certainly aren't the first to have asked to be placed in a different house other than the one I would have sorted them into. I shall consider your choice.'_

Hermione perked up and almost immediately, her thoughts raced with arguments and reasoning her almost twelve year old mind came up with.

_'Ah, right, then. Hmmm, right. Okay.'_ The hat said, slightly amused at the young witch; and then announced her house, "GRYFFINDOR!"

* * *

**A/N: You're welcome to leave behind your Reviews and comments as well as personal opinion. Though I would prefer the latter to be a PM... sometimes :D**


	6. First week

**A/N: unBeta'd Chapter 6.**

* * *

Harry's eyes grew wide for just a moment when Hermione was sorted. He honestly expected her to get sorted into Ravenclaw when the sorting hat dropped into her head. He fondly watched as Hermione took off the hat and skipped towards Gryffindor table and was greeted with a huge applause.

The sorting continued but Harry was barely listening, seemingly detached from the physical world, his expression impassive as his thoughts swam of his parents; wanting nothing more than to have a little bit more connection to them.

Harry was pulled from his thoughts when his name was called by Professor McGonagall, "Potter, Harry!"

As soon as his name was called, low murmurs erupted throughout the Great Hall. Most of which he's heard before and was thoroughly used to, although there were some he caught as he walked towards the sorting hat that were quite amusing.

"Oh my… If not for the fact that he's only eleven…"

"He's so dreamy," the voice then made a coughing noise, "…well for a firstie."

"Perhaps I should fail my classes and go back down a grade…"

"Cho!"

Before the hat was dropped on his head and obscured his vision, He caught sight of a pink-haired seventh-year witch slumped on the Hufflepuff table doing her best not to burst out laughing as she held her stomach.

Then it went dark as the sorting hat covered his eyes. _'Hmmm, good… very good, it seems Hogwarts landed a collection of brilliant minds this year. You have quite the prodigious mind Mr. Potter. Think of what you can accomplish in the house of wit and learning… no… better yet, in the house of cunning with grand ambition.'_

When he heard the hat's words, Harry tried his best to convey his desire to be sorted into the house that his parents were sorted into.

The sorting hat released an exasperated sigh, _'Of course, I should have known...' _Harry pictured the hat rolling its' nonexistent eyes. The hat chuckled, '_Indeed I would Mr. Potter, if I had them… Now, are you absolutely certain of this decision?'_

Harry simply answered with a resounding, _'Yes.'_

_'Hmmm… you know, in retrospect, you are doing the exact opposite of what Mr. Black did when I sorted him all those years ago, but your heart is in the right place, as was your godfather's when I sorted him. Very well,'_

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouted into the now silent Great Hall.

A moment's pause ensued; followed by the same booming applause the Gryffindors greeted each and every new housemate.

Harry took the hat off, placed it back on the stool and made a beeline towards where Hermione was seated. "Guess we see each other sooner than expected Granger. May I?" He greeted and politely asked if he could sit beside her.

"Harry! Of course you may," Hermione smiled and scooted to indicate he may sit with her. "I didn't expect you to be in Gryffindor, is that why… uhmm… never mind, I'm sure it's personal."

Harry knew what she wanted to ask, he could read it all over her face. He gave her a reassuring smile and said, "Perhaps," he owed it to her observant nature to connect the dots.

Hermione nodded and turned back to observe the sorting and Harry did the same. Not many left to be sorted now.

He applauded along as two other Gryffindors joined their ranks, one of which was Ron Weasley who paled when he caught Harry's eyes as he joined Gryffindor house. Harry internally chuckled; to think that the redhead took Daphne's words on the train all too seriously, she'll have the youngest male Weasley wracking his brains out worrying on a non-existent plot to have Gryffindor house infiltrated by a true Slytherin. _'Although, I suppose it would be fun to play the part.'_ He mused.

With the last name called forward, "Zabini, Blaise!"

Blaise lightly tapped Harry on the shoulder as he passed and said, "See you around Potter."

Harry replied with a nod and observed Blaise be sorted into Slytherin where he joined Daphne and Tracey.

The first years' sorting concluded, the Headmaster stood from his head's seat and addressed to the students, "Welcome all, to another year at Hogwarts, with that note, let us all enjoy a wonderful banquet."

* * *

Hermione expected as much when the Headmaster ended his brief welcome, and varieties of food appeared piled on dishes. Everyone began eating, the higher year students introduced themselves to the first years and hoped to lessen their apprehension at being the new kids in school.

Hermione would have liked to discuss anything about Hogwarts with the redhead fifth year prefect that introduced himself earlier as Percy Weasley; but to do that, she would have to turn her head to the direction of her fellow first year Ron Weasley, who seemed adamant to devour anything edible in range.

She turned to Harry who had a contemplative look on his face, "Penny for your thoughts?"

Harry smirked and said, "You're going to need a lot of pennies Granger."

Hermione scrunched up her face and pretended to be thinking about it and then giggled, "Deal, so what's on your mind?"

"Persistent are you? To be honest, not much; I was just thinking about how Hogwarts is going to be different from Beauxbatons."

"Oh, of course, you would have left some friends at your old school. You don't regret going here do you?" Hermione asked and gave him a sympathetic smile.

Harry looked at her with a stoic expression for a moment, "No, not really. As for friends, we'll be writing." He leaned closer and asked, "What about you Granger? What do you think of the school so far?"

A slight pink tinge rose on Hermione's cheeks because of Harry's proximity, she smiled brightly, "Everything is absolutely amazing! Oh, I can't wait to start classes, there's just so much to learn."

Harry chuckled at the bushy-haired girl's enthusiasm for learning, "Glad to hear it Granger. I'm sure you'll do great."

Hermione was about to respond in kind when she felt that rush of magic that signaled the switch of dishes into dessert. Once again she was caught awestruck for a moment at the variety of selection. She saw Harry took some of the treacle tart and decided to have some as well.

Hermione didn't get the chance to pick up her conversation with Harry when they finished dessert because the Headmaster stood once more, the Hall fell silent.

"Now that we are all fed and watered; I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. Fist years should note that the forest on the grounds are forbidden to _all _students."

"Mr. Filch, our caretaker, has also asked me to remind you all that no magic are to be used between classes in the corridors."

"I am delighted to welcome back our dear Professor Quirrell who is to resume his post as Muggle Studies professor. And also, let us welcome our new Defense against the Dark Arts Professor, Professor Croaker from our Ministry's department of mysteries. And finally, I must tell you that this year; the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to any and all students until further notice, failure to comply shall be met with the appropriate disciplinary action."

"Now I hardly want to keep you lot from your much needed sleep, please be reminded that you will find your class schedules on your respective bedside desks in the morning, and off you trot!"

The prefects dutifully went about their task and led the first years to their respective houses. Hermione barely registered the series of turns they made and the number of flights of stairs they climbed to get to a painting of a rather fat lady. She was pretty sure she had fallen asleep in the middle of their walk which was probably why Harry had held on to her elbow while the Indian girl that held her by the waist was yawning from time to time.

Hermione managed a coherent reply when Harry said, "Sleep well Granger. See you in the morning." Harry then turned to Hermione's dorm mates, "Best make sure she's properly dressed for bed you two, don't think she can manage that alone." With that, he turned and followed his own dorm mates to their dormitories.

* * *

Hogwarts, Gryffindor house

First year dormitories

September 2, 1991

Harry eased into consciousness. He brushed off the odd feeling of not waking up in their France manor since he is now attending Hogwarts. When he got up to their dormitory last night, he only shared common pleasantries with his fellow Gryffindors he didn't already know, bid Neville to have a good night sleep and closed his bed hangings but not before he caught Ron eye him suspiciously. He of course incited that reaction from the youngest male Weasley by demonstrating proper Wizarding etiquette complete with his façade that he normally only used with his cousin; and not the seventh year cousin either.

He lay and stared blankly at the ceiling of his four-poster bed for about five minutes when the digital alarm went off. _'Digital alarm clock: modified for magical use on an area heavily saturated with ambient magical energy, check.' _Harry mentally filed. He has about three weeks to test three modified electronic devices that ran on ambient magical energy.

After a few more moments, Harry decided to get up and prepare for the day.

Done with his morning necessities and clothed in proper Hogwarts robes, he scanned over his timetable and prepared the books he'll need along with parchments and quill.

Harry slung his book bag on his shoulder and quietly walked down to the common room. He didn't notice his only other dorm mate, who was awake at such an ungodly hour of five thirty in the morning, gave him an expression of guilt and sadness then turned to look at his wand on the desk and gave the eleven inches of Holly a look of disgust and indignation.

Harry found a lone figure seated on a rather comfortable looking armchair by the common room fireplace. He walked over and found Hermione pouring over one of her school books with her lit wand as her source of illumination.

"I see you're quite the morning person. Good morning Granger." He was slightly amused when she almost jumped off the chair when he spoke.

"Harry! Uhmm… Good morning to you too," Hermione said after she got her heart rate back to normal pace, she didn't even hear Harry walk over towards where she was seated until he spoke. "Isn't it too early to be dressed for class?"

"Hmmm? Oh, I think I'll go wander around the castle; see if I can find the classrooms without help. See you at breakfast." Harry said as he began to walk across the common room.

"Ok, see you." Hermione replied as Harry ghosted across the common and out through the portrait door. No wonder she didn't notice him approach earlier; with the effect of the dimly lit common room, Harry's eerily almost unmoving robes, and his somewhat aristocratic posture when he carries himself; he almost seemed to float, if not for his visibly confident steps, Hermione would have thought that Harry really was floating.

She watched Harry exit through the portrait and went back to reading her transfigurations book which they will have for the day.

* * *

Harry wandered around the castle for about an hour until he found the room he purposely sought out to find, the Trophy Room. He must have stood on the same spot for far more than a couple of minutes because the rays of sunlight that filtered through the room's windows were getting brighter.

So lost in his thoughts as he stared at the small shield that had his parents' name engraved in them, Hogwarts Head Boy and Head Girl of school year nineteen seventy-seven to seventy-eight, that he haven't noticed when a pale-blonde girl entered the room until she said, "I figured I'd find you here."

Harry was pulled from his thoughts by Daphne's voice. He turned and gave her a weak smile, "Hey Daphne, been there long?"

Daphne closed their distance, stepped right next to Harry and slightly leaned on his shoulder, "Not too long. I take it you found them?"

Harry nodded his head to the direction of the small shield with the Head Boy's and Head Girl's name on it.

Daphne sighed and rested her head on Harry's shoulder, inciting him to wrap an arm around her, "You're an idiot, you realize that right?" she said to which Harry just snorted out a chuckle, "They would have been proud of you no matter what house you were sorted into… not to mention we could have had a kick at Sirius' reaction of knowing you got sorted into Slytherin." She muttered the latter in an undertone.

Harry and Daphne stayed that way for a long while. It wasn't until the caretaker's cat Mrs. Norris trotted into the trophy room and looked up at the two students with a calculating gaze. They both stared at the feline with impassive expressions. After a moment, the feline deemed them worthy of a reprieve as they weren't found breaking any rules, Mrs. Norris motioned her head towards the door and both students took it as dismissal from the caretaker's pet, they left for breakfast.

* * *

Hermione went down to breakfast with her dorm mates. Her two other dorm mates introduced themselves when she finally went back up to their dorm to get ready for the day.

Parvati and Lavender seemed to have struck up a beginning of a long, fruitful and giggly friendship with the bushy-haired witch as their catalyst.

They were soon joined by their fellow first year boys, save one. Hermione wondered where Harry was. She must not have been very subtle with her search because she heard Parvati and Lavender giggle profusely after a whispered conversation, and then Lavender asked, "Looking for Harry, Hermione?"

Hermione almost snorted in an unladylike manner at the blonde girl's question, "Oh yeah, I suppose. He said he'd go wandering around the castle earlier, he could have easily gotten lost with the size of this place; honestly I'm quite surprised we found our way back here from Gryffindor tower, though of course the paintings were great help."

Her answer placated the two and drew on a serious note, "I suppose you're right Hermione, do you think we should inform a professor? Professor McGonagall is over there by the staff's table."

As if on cue, Harry walked into the Great hall with Daphne and groups of higher year students just getting to breakfast; Hermione spotted the couple through the steady stream of students coming into the Hall for breakfast. She waved when they looked in her general direction of the Gryffindor table.

Parvati and Lavender were again engaged in a whispered conversation when they zeroed in on the target of Hermione's gesture. They noticed Harry nod at Hermione then turned to talk with the pretty blonde first year Slytherin, probably to say goodbye or to see each other later; of that, they weren't sure. But they do know that they only have a few minutes at best to get some answers out of their bushy-haired dorm mate.

"Who's that Harry walked in with?" Lavender asked.

"Who? Oh, that's Daphne, she's Harry's best friend." She simply said and turned back to where Harry was finished talking with Daphne and now made their way to their own House tables.

Parvati pounced at the opportunity and fixed Hermione with a devious smile, "_Just_ his best friend? Or…" Parvati purposely left it hanging.

Hermione blinked at her dorm mate's follow-up question, but before she could ask why they were asking, Harry joined them in their seat for breakfast. "Granger, Brown, Patil," He politely greeted each with a smile.

Hermione greeted him with a smile while her two dorm mates once again giggled and chimed, "Hello Harry."

Based on their whispered conversation and constant giggles, Hermione surmised that Parvati and Lavender must have wanted to ask Harry some, more than personal questions; but whether it was because of his current stolid demeanor while he ate breakfast or her presence between Harry and her two other dorm mates, they managed to keep it to themselves.

Harry finished a balanced breakfast in an appropriate set of time; he turned to Hermione who was reading her transfigurations book, having already finished her own food. "You don't expect to be given a pop quiz on the first day of school do you?" He asked with a sly grin.

"Doesn't hurt to be ready…" She retorted which earned her a chuckle from the emerald-eyed boy, "Anyway, how'd your exploring go? I thought you've gotten lost when the other boys came in and you haven't."

"I did actually, spent half the time getting lost." They both softly laughed at that, "Though I did manage to find the trophy room, not that it's much of an achievement since it's not one of our classrooms."

"Oooh, will you show me? Hogwarts has been around for almost over millennia, all those achievements, trophies and recognition received by students since its founding; I bet the room is absolutely grand and amazing!" Hermione beamingly lectured.

Harry amusedly chuckled at the bushy-haired witch, "I'll show you the room if I could find my way back Granger, but for now, how about we start heading for class."

"Yes of course, I suppose Professor McGonagall isn't someone you'd want to be late to on the first day of classes. Parvati, Lavender, do you want to come with us?" Hermione said and invited her dorm mates.

"Sure Hermione," The two chimed together, but added in an undertone when they walked on either side of Hermione, "Are you sure don't want to walk with Harry _alone_?"

The pink tinge that rose on Hermione's cheeks could have been interpreted either way as she mildly glared at both of her dorm mates which only incited giggles from the two.

* * *

Hermione and company were joined by first years Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin as they walked the corridor for their first day of Transfigurations class. They arrived at their classroom with ample amount of time to either relax from a most satisfying breakfast or in Hermione's case, take out her book, parchment and quill, ready for copying down notes. There was no one in the classroom when they arrived save for a tabby cat sitting stiffly on the Professor's desk.

Hermione noticed that once again, Harry sat quietly with the stolid expression he wore at breakfast. A behavior mirrored by most of the Slytherins, though with varying degrees of impassiveness. The Ravenclaws, much like her, were reading their text books while the Hufflepuffs were chatting albeit they didn't make too much noise. Neville was the only one different; if she didn't know any better, she'd think that he's glaring at his wand on the table in front of him.

The bell rang indicating the start of classes. It was at that moment that the remaining three other Gryffindor boys chose to go to class and came bursting into their Transfigurations classroom about fifteen minutes later. They were greeted with Professor McGonagall's steely gaze and proceeded to reprimand the three students from her own house for being tardy.

"I will not be repeating classroom orientation. That is punishment enough for your tardiness; should this happen again, points will be deducted. Now if you would take a seat and open your books to the first activity indicated, I suggest you do your work with minimal noise." Professor McGonagall sternly instructed.

Not very long into doing their assigned work, the class was again disturbed by a small explosion from the direction of the three tardy Gryffindor boys. Seamus managed to bore a smoking hole through his working desk with the spell that was supposed to turn their matchstick into a needle.

The Professor internally sighed but didn't let her disappointment show; it was after all the first day of class. Professor McGonagall walked over the damaged desk and with a few waves of her wand, repaired the desk and provided Seamus with another matchstick to work on. When she glanced over to her other Gryffindors, she was delighted to see that two of them have successfully turned their matchsticks into needles while Mr. Longbottom, Ms. Brown and Ms. Patil were close.

"Mr. Potter, if you don't mind, would you kindly assist these three since they weren't here for the demonstration earlier." Professor McGonagall relented to provide assistance to the obviously struggling tardy students.

"Of course Professor." Was Harry's short reply and gathered his notes to share with the three.

Hermione for her part went back to reading and writing quick notes on her parchment. Both her and Harry were awarded points for turning their matchsticks into a needle as everyone else who successfully did the same task.

* * *

All of the first years' classes started and ended much the same way as their first transfigurations class did, though the tardy trio managed to keep up with their housemates and avoided being late again.

Much to Hermione's delight, two if not three of their subjects were closely interrelated. She was confused at first when their Charms class Professor started their first lesson on shield charms; shield charms were at least halfway through their books, but decided not to question it.

When they finally got a 'Defense Against the Dark Arts' class, it was made clear why they had to learn the shield charms for their first Charms class. Professor Croaker may not be as excitable as Professor Flitwick nor was he as stern as Professor McGonagall, but his presence demanded attention. At the very least, his eerie voice and direct to the point lessons would have your full attention, not to mention that on his first day of class, the eerie Professor materialized out of nowhere and proceeded to explain that in dire situations, those who aren't attentive to their surroundings would certainly die a quick and painless death… if you're lucky.

Needless to say that it was a panting group of Gryffindor and Slytherin first years that exited their first Defense lesson. Professor Croaker it seemed took a whole new world view of the word endurance, as their first lesson of instilling survival at such a young age. The Defense Professor had each student stand against him, produce the strongest shield charm he or she can muster and hold it as he fires seriously overpowered stinging hexes, that felt like a pinch administered by someone who has long nails and twisted the pinch for good measure, at them.

Hermione could proudly say she held up for the first trio of stinging hexes but didn't much appreciate the ones that got through and hit her legs and shoulders. Her eyes watered a bit before she realized that she had a renewed shield charm defending her. She turned to see that Harry had brought up his obsidian-colored wand; she gave him a grateful smile.

Her smile lasted for about a second until the Professor spoke in his eerie voice and tone, "Ah, yes, Mr. Potter, perhaps you'd like to be next."

Hermione helplessly walked back to her seat. She looked around to observe the expressions of her fellow classmates who had gone ahead of her on the Professor's lesson. Tracey was rubbing her grazed shoulders; Crabbe was unabashedly rubbing his bits that got squarely hit by the spell when his shield fell, and her fellow Gryffindor Seamus somberly pointed out to Ron how lucky he was that his name was all the way to the back, perhaps by then, the Professor would get tired and his stinging hexes relatively weaker.

Hermione was however curious as to why Daphne was sporting a bone chilling smirk as Harry stood in front of the Professor. Her curiosity was soon satisfied when Harry brought up his shield charm. She noticed Harry's shield looked a lot more prominent and the color a lot sharper. Hermione lost count after the first ten overpowered stinging hexes fired Harry's way when the Professor switched from power to speed of his casting.

Awed by his tenacity, the class as a whole gasped when Harry purposely dropped his shield, side-stepped the hexes he can dodge, grimaced slightly at the ones that grazed him and finally dove behind the Professor's desk. "Very good Mr. Potter." Professor Croaker complimented with the same eerie tone, his next comment however, drew shivers from their spine, "Now, who wants to be the next victim."

* * *

After the first years' initial introductory classes, they quickly got into pace for the school year. Hermione couldn't be more ecstatic after her first week at Hogwarts. Apart from Harry, she noticed that most of the magically born and raised children her age weren't that much far ahead in their knowledge about magic as she originally thought.

The only downside so far that she could think of was their History of Magic class. The spectral Professor was indeed knowledgeable in his subject matter and even though he died a long time ago, he was quite updated in his subject; but for the life of her, Professor Binns simply wasn't capable of making History sound interesting. It was like the ancient ghost was quoting directly from the books, which he was when Harry pointed it out when they met at the library later that week.

By the end of the first week, Hermione loved each and every one of her classes with transfigurations and charms fighting bouts for first place while she surprised herself by having potions firmly locked in second; not that having Harry as her 'lab' partner was the main reason but it certainly influenced her decision. Now though, she is faced with a new dilemma for the first weekend, first years were to have their first flying lessons on broomsticks.

* * *

"I figured I'd find you here Granger." Harry said as he sat across Hermione on their usual table in the library. The same table they shared with Daphne, Tracey, Blaise and from time to time some fellow first year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs.

"Hello Harry. What brings you here? I thought you finished all your essay assignments, because I could have sworn you finished them, I mean Daphne, Tracey, Blaise and myself was here when you finished them; because it was the same time we finished our essays. And why are you smirking!?" Hermione said in a stride with a rising volume which slowly drew the attention of Madam Pince, the severely strict school librarian.

Harry chuckled and leaned forward on the table, "Granger, you're rambling… Guess it's safe to assume you're that nervous about flying lessons tomorrow huh?"

Hermione blushed at being caught, "Is it too much to ask for some seatbelts and safety harnesses on tomorrow's broomsticks?" She asked and half-hoped to get a positive answer.

This drew a soft laugh, and Harry motioned for her to get out of the library with him so they can talk freely as Madam Pince was close to glaring daggers at them if she were to hear a peep from them again.

Hermione relented and followed Harry out of the library, "Don't you want to spend the rest of the day with Daphne and the others? It's a nice day out and after our double potions; even I would want to spend the rest of the day under the sun." She said as they walked to the direction of Gryffindor tower.

"I mean honestly! How does Professor Snape survive the cold down there?" Hermione added, oblivious of the Potions Professor emerging from a hidden corridor that provided a shorter walk from the Headmaster's office to the staircases that led directly to the dungeons.

"The answer to that would be heating charms Ms. Granger, preferably casted on multiple layers of clothing." Professor Snape said as he passed them and added with a slight nod before he turned to the next corridor, "Mr. Potter."

Harry smoothly slipped into his façade and mirrored the Potions Master's greeting as he said, "Professor."

Hermione stood shocked at being heard by the very Professor she was referring to, but thankful that said Professor didn't seem offended or didn't look like it at least.

"I think he heard you," Harry commented and chuckled.

"Prat," was all Hermione said and joined Harry in light laughter.

When they arrived at the common room, Harry told Hermione that if she wanted to leave her book bag behind, she could. He then ran up the boys' dormitories to retrieve something and met Hermione back at the common room about five minutes later.

"Here you go; I thought you might want to read that while we sit by the lake." He said and handed her a book entitled _Quidditch through the Ages_.

Hermione's eyes widened as she took the book. A quick run through on its contents, she found what she sorely needed to know for tomorrow's flying lessons, the book contained an introductory to flying on a broomstick.

"Oh Harry, thank you!" She said and they both proceeded to walk out of the castle to enjoy the rest of the day out by the lake.

Once outside the castle, Hermione made sure there was nothing to trip over and opened Harry's book to read. She only stopped when he did and was a bit surprised when Daphne spoke, "Even on a nice day out, it seems you can't separate Granger from her books Harry."

Harry shook his head, "It's actually my fault this time; she kept worrying about the flying lessons for tomorrow."

"Hey! Like I said, is it too much to ask for some seatbelts on tomorrow's broomsticks?" This drew an uncharacterized snort from the three Slytherins. Hermione looked around for a spot to sit on when she found an assortment of usually served desserts on top of a picnic mat. "Uhmmm, are we having a picnic?" she asked.

Blaise snapped his fingers, "Is that how you call it? I knew the term was relatively simple but I couldn't remember what it was."

Hermione amusedly shook her head and took a seat by Harry and Daphne. They spent the rest of the day sitting, chatting and relaxing by the lake.

* * *

Hogwarts, Gryffindor house

First year dormitories

September 7, 1991

Saturday, first weekend at Hogwarts; Harry groaned as he eased into consciousness. He only planned to report to his godfather the previous night but they ended up talking for well over midnight. Sirius inquired about how his testing of the magically enhanced muggle technology was going. The digital clock and portable compact disc player worked splendidly even with the school being extremely saturated with ambient magical energy, though Harry expressed his concerns about testing the Television screen to which his godfather advised him to bring in a Professor, preferably both Ancient Runes and Charms professor.

With that out of the way, Sirius asked him how his first week at Hogwarts went. He told his godfather about his daily exploration of the castle. Sirius perked up at this news and proceeded to remind his godson about this remarkable map he along with James and Remus had made when they were in school; that if he found it, he won't have to wander about in the mornings trying to memorize the place.

Harry cleared his thoughts when his alarm went off. He slowly stood off from his four-poster bed and was promptly greeted by the snores of his redheaded dorm mate. As he walked towards the bathroom to get ready for the day, he noticed Neville was awake as well, "Morning Nev," Harry nonchalantly greeted.

After having done his morning ritual; Harry put on his casual muggle clothing, though growing with Daphne as his fashion adviser, this entailed that each and every garment was regrettably muggle designer's clothing.

He passed Neville on his way out of the dorm, "You know Nev, if you keep glaring at your wand like that, it might just up and poke you in the eye." He said with a hint of teasing for his friend's unusual behavior since school started.

Harry mistakenly took Neville's snort as one of amusement and he was half-way down to the common room to have caught Neville's comment when he said, "I hope it does, so I'd have a reason to snap the bloody thing."

* * *

"You're really on edge about your first flying lessons later huh Granger?" Harry asked when he spotted Hermione seated on her usual armchair by the common room fire.

Hermione, for her part, had once again almost jumped off the armchair when she heard Harry, "Geez Harry! How do you always do that?"

He chuckled, "Good morning to you too. And how do I always do what?" he asked with genuine curiosity.

Hermione giggled and replied, "uhmmm… never mind… Going out for your daily walk?"

Harry nodded and then turned contemplative for a moment, "Want to have that walk with me Granger? I was just going to hang around the trophy room until breakfast."

Hermione beamed and closed her borrowed book from Harry. "I would love to." She stood and took Harry's offered arm.

They made their way to the trophy room in relative silence.

The pair spotted Daphne leaning her back against the wall beside a rather huge looking double door. The blonde smiled that reserved smile of hers as she spotted them walking down the corridor. Whether it was by instinct or perhaps out of respect for the blonde girl, Hermione let go of Harry's arm when Daphne joined them as they entered the trophy room.

Once inside, Hermione stood wide-eyed at the neatly and properly arranged stacks of trophies, glass cabinets of golden engraved shields and plaques of recognition.

"Go ahead and wander around Granger. Daphne and I will just be there by those cabinets." Harry said.

Hermione nodded and smiled at the two, she briefly glanced at where Harry pointed at and read the label of the series of cabinets, _Hogwarts' Head boys and Head girls_. She filed that thought away and headed for the plaques. What better way to learn more of the school's history than to look for significant events that clearly left its mark upon the school and its students.

* * *

That afternoon, about a little over an hour after everyone finished their lunch, found the first years on the school grounds in their best imitation of muggle casual wear, at least all thought up to wear pants in anticipation for their flying lessons. This of course served as entertainment for the muggleborns; save from Harry and company, most magically raised children seemed to bizarrely mismatch their muggle clothing.

While they waited, all grouped up with friends they managed to make in the course of their first week in school, most of them sat on the grass and chatted with their friends. There were two groups of first years however that drew attention to themselves more than necessary. Ron and Seamus regaled their friend Dean of their adventures on a broom that would have gotten them countless warnings in regards about upholding the Statute of Secrecy and would have had their parents paying for penalties many times over.

Their bizarre stories were only matched by one Draco Malfoy who himself boasted to anyone who bothered to listen about his own adventures that always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping muggle helicopters.

These stories were making every clueless muggleborn nauseous by the minute, bad enough that none of the brooms in these stories had any safety devices in them but the series of loop de loops that the youngest male Weasley visually explained with his hands seemed to be the only way to pass this particular class if anyone of them ever wanted to try out for quidditch house teams next school year.

With all first years present and accounted for; Madam Hooch, their flying instructor, along with four quidditch team captains from each house as teaching assistants; strode to the school grounds and began their flying lessons.

"Everyone stand by a broom stick," Madam Hooch instructed, "Come on now, no point in choosing, they're all the same." She barked, and indeed the broomsticks were all, of the same model, seemed to be new at that, just a couple of years since its purchase.

"Now, I want you to stick your right hand over your broom, and say up." Madam Hooch instructed from the front while her teaching assistants assisted some of the few awkward muggleborns.

"UP" the first years shouted.

Some jumped immediately on a student's hand while some seemed reluctant to until they were given a tip by the four team captains to sound more commanding instead of a request.

Next the first years were shown how to mount their brooms by Madam Hooch. Once they were airborne, Madam Hooch left them to the assistance of the four quidditch team captains while she observed each student, ready to head off any unforeseen accidents; they may only be hovering at about twenty feet but judging from the boasted conversations the redhead of Gryffindor and pale-blond loudmouthed Slytherin, anything could happen.

"Alright you lot, you seem to have gotten the hang of it." Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor quidditch team captain, commented, "Very nice form there Potter, heck if I didn't know any better I'd say you were born on a broomstick."

Harry shrugged his shoulders and nonchalantly replied, "Genes,"

"Oh, of course, well then… be sure to try out for the team next year or Merlin help me, I'll hunt you down if you don't." Oliver said and drew a chuckle from the first year; he turned to assist the remaining Gryffindor first girls.

Harry turned to Hermione to see how she's doing, "So how is it Granger? Still think you need seatbelts on that thing?"

Hermione huffed, "Well there's no harm in being safe…" she retorted.

"Mind if I leave you here a bit? I need to talk to Neville."

"No, go ahead. I'll be…" She was cut off by Tracey's fit of giggles from above as she barreled down and safely stopped beside Hermione.

"I got her Harry, see you on the ground." The auburn-haired girl assured.

Harry nodded and headed off towards Neville. When he got to him, Harry asked, "Nev, now that we're in the air, want to tell about what's been troubling you since school started?"

Neville, caught off guard, cursed under his breath. The usually kind and cheerful thought sometimes a bit shy boy sighed, "I'm sorry Harry, I know I've been a bit of a git lately."

Harry waved it off, "Hardly. You've been glaring at your wand like you want to snap though, why is that?"

"I suppose I couldn't have kept this from you even if I wanted to," Neville said and took a calming breath, "When I went to Ollivander's for my wand, I was there for an hour. I must have tested dozens until I got this."

"Holly wood eleven inches and Phoenix tail-feather. Apparently the phoenix whose tail-feather is in this one, only gave one other, that old senile wand-maker dubbed this wand as the brother wand of the one that killed your parents." Neville laced every one of his words with as much loathing as he has on the dark lord.

Harry chuckled a bit, "It never really did suit you when you start insulting the elderly Nev,"

"Harry! I'm serious! No, don't do that godfather joke now please… Don't you know what this means?"

"That you could be the next Dark Lord? Don't worry about it; I'll be your right hand man if you'll have me." Harry said, trying to assuage his friend's needless worries of owning the brother wand of the one that's caused so much pain and suffering.

Neville palmed his forehead, "I think I'm gonna be sick, aren't you even the least bit concerned about this?"

"Not really. A wand is a mere tool Nev, I've read up on a bit of wand lore and wands are quasi sentient at best, that only goes up to matching its owner; but what you do with it, is all up to you."

Neville took a deep breath, "I suppose you've got a point…" he felt a ton lighter, "So, do you really think I'd make a great Dark Lord?" he quipped, trying to lighten up the mood.

Harry grinned; at least his friend is back. He honestly thought that there's just no point in worrying about something that's just literally out of your control; and if Neville keeps worrying about it, then he'd snap Neville's wand himself and have Ollivander make Neville a new one with raw ingredients. Plus there's always Mr. Measures if 'the old senile wand-maker' refused.

"Alright you lot, everyone did splendidly for their first flying lessons, _especially_ the muggleborns. Three more Saturday flying lessons without a hitch and you can consider yourselves proficient flyers. Now land slowly and class dismissed." Madam Hooch instructed after she observed that the first years made considerable progress for their first lesson.

The first years, once firmly on the ground, went back to their respective house common rooms and dormitories to relax.

* * *

**A/N: Well, here you are everyone, Turban head returns as Muggle Studies Professor and I figured that for the DADA position, I figured that if there's no applicants that the ministry would appoint a volunteer from their ranks with either DMLE head aurors or Dept. of mysteries unspeakables specializing on offensive and defensive magic development as preferable choices. Questions about the chapter, kindly PM them. As always, you're welcome to share your opinions and views as reviews. **


	7. Halloween incident

**A/N: New chapter. Unbeta'd. Slight time skip, wouldn't want to bore you after all. Anyway, hope you enjoy.**

* * *

Hogwarts, Headmaster's Office

October 25, 1991

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore sat pensively, as he waited for his four heads of houses for an emergency meeting, his thoughts wandered back to the start of the current school year.

The Headmaster was simply astounded when he saw James' and Lily's son, Harry. Now he knew that he had made the right choice back then. He shuddered at the thought of how the boy would have turned out had he followed through with his original plan, which was severely flawed from the very beginning as Minerva was only too happy to point out.

Though Harry looked like the carbon copy of his father minus the spectacles, the boy was all Lily; from his air of confidence without arrogance to his thirst for knowledge and talent for magic. The boy had also eerily reminded him of another that he had the pleasure of having as a student back when he taught transfigurations, but without the menacing aura that Tom had often emitted even in his earlier life. Tom was a brilliant wizard, but whether it was because of an already deeply engraved flaw in his psyche or things he had learned later in life, he turned out to be one of the most feared dark lord of all times.

Dumbledore was pulled from his thoughts when his four heads of house filed into his office. After the four professors were seated, he began. "I have called for this emergency meeting in regards of the matter concerning my oldest friend Nicholas Flamel."

The professors nodded in understanding, "As you know, the essence of the stone has been successfully extracted and its vessel destroyed. Without an alchemical vessel, the essence of the stone would revert back and disperse as magical energy."

"That's hardly a reason for the third floor corridor to be of use again Headmaster," Snape said, "Since Hagrid's pet seems to have taken a liking to its current residence."

"On the contrary Severus, we need to increase the protections in place all the way down to the room where we kept the stone before its destruction." Dumbledore said and his four heads of houses felt a sense of dread at the Headmaster's expression.

"I have a feeling that we won't like the reason behind that Albus." McGonagall said, barely keeping a stern expression.

"I'm afraid you won't… A wraith has been edging the school wards, and Hagrid has reported a number of unicorn killings in the forbidden forest… the poor creatures it seems, were killed for their blood." Dumbledore fixed each professor with a penetrating gaze. "I believe we only know of one person desperate enough to resort to drinking forcibly taken unicorn blood to survive…"

Snape voiced out their thoughts, "The Dark Lord."

Sprout stiffened and suppressed a gasp, Flitwick let out a low growl and McGonagall wore a steely expression when she asked, "Do you think he was… or rather, he still is after the stone Albus?"

"I'm afraid so Minerva… What concerns me is, should Tom's wraith infiltrate the wards which maybe highly doubtful but I wouldn't put it past his ability to do so if he hasn't already done it. The stone may be destroyed but Tom doesn't know that as it is not public knowledge, with increased protections, we can only hope that he remains fixated on gaining the stone." Dumbledore eased a bit on his seat.

"What of the students Albus? Will they be safe?" McGonagall asked.

"We will protect them to the best of our ability. As of now, Tom's wraith wouldn't dare cross the wards for fear of giving me time to tune them to him. As for possession, not even the seventh years would be able to contain him thus limiting his choices of vessels to us adults save for Argus." Dumbledore explained.

"By the way Minerva, I was hoping to inquire about Mr. Weasley along with Mr. Finnigan and Mr. Thomas. Have they shown any inclination as to the knowledge of why there was a Cerberus, albeit a rather sweet one, in the unused room of the out-of-bounds corridor?" the wizened wizard added.

"No, ever since their blatant disregard for the rule and purposely wandered about the out-of-bounds corridor, they haven't asked any questions about it. Come to think of it, they didn't seem to even wonder about what a giant three headed dog was doing in that room in the first place." McGonagall answered.

The Headmaster went contemplative for a moment, "I see, keep an eye on them regardless. We can never anticipate what today's young minds can piece together. Alas, I was under the impression that this year, we are gifted with more than a number of brilliant minds."

"Indeed Headmaster, why I am still rather 'miffed' with Minerva for landing Mr. Potter and Ms. Granger," Flitwick joined in, having the serious part of their meeting done with.

"You can say that again Filius," Snape started with his usual baritone along with the emotionless façade, "I had Potter pegged for my house when the child showed quite the skill for potion brewing ever since Black hired my teaching services. The boy seemed to have absorbed more during Black's and Lupin's lessons."

The Slytherin head of house then added in an undertone that wasn't missed by all present, "Considering the child was barely two then…"

These comments drew a steely glare from the transfigurations professor, but there was no mistaking the triumph that shone on her eyes at the thought of two of her lion cubs being coveted by other houses.

The Herbology professor would have liked to add to the conversation but decided to save it for when they discussed the matter thoroughly over supper later.

"As amusing as it is to hear about healthy house competition, I'm afraid we have strayed from the purpose of this meeting," Dumbledore said with twinkling blue eyes, "I believe it is safe to say the this meeting is adjourned, good day professors."

The four heads of houses bid the Headmaster a good day and went about their duties after the meeting.

* * *

Hogwarts, Second Floor

Girls' Bathroom

October 31, 1991

Hermione sat on the closed top of a toilet in the first cubicle she found when she entered the girls bathroom earlier in the day. She had cried her eyes dry since, her nose red and the skin around her eyes were starting to chaff because of her constantly wiping them dry.

It's the thirty-first of October, supposedly her first Halloween at Hogwarts. All her life, she never enjoyed holidays that might include hanging out with peers, because all her life she'd never had close friends.

It must have had something to do with her always knowing all the answers when the teachers asked, topping all her exams which evidently led to her being always at the top of her class back in primary school. Of course, her parents knew that she was sad of not having friends, but she had always assured them that they and her books were enough; she did love reading and learning after all.

This year however, should have been different. Just the first week into Hogwarts, Hermione admitted to herself that she had never been happier. Someone had befriended her, besides the fact that she sought him out on the train ride to school; Harry had befriended her and even introduced her to his long time friends.

Hermione was overjoyed at finally having peers she could call her own. She also had to admit that convincing the hat to place her in Gryffindor may have been an entirely wrong choice, and there lies her current predicament.

A month within the school, it became apparent to Hermione that even in the magical world in a school for witchcraft and wizardry, schoolyard rivalries still existed. With Ravenclaw and Slytherin, what they have is a healthy competition where they pit wit against cunning, but with Gryffindor and Slytherin, their rivalry was anything but healthy.

But such petty squabbles couldn't have deterred Hermione's elated sense. And apparently with Harry known to most pureblood families as an heir to two noble and ancient houses, people were just more than happy to leave him and his peers out of the childish hostilities and rivalries. Of course it may have also had something to do with him being magically talented and powerful for his age that they wouldn't want to be a practice dummy for his spell repertoire.

If Daphne could turn an arrogant third year of her own house, who was hitting on her a first year, into a sniveling baby with his tail between his legs; then they'd hate to see what her best friend Harry could do.

Hermione shook her head as her thoughts strayed from the cause of her current predicament.

As she got back on track on how bad a day she was having, she let out an irritated growl when she remembered what one Draco Malfoy had said to her when the blonde boy headed her off when she went to the library right after lunch earlier.

* * *

_Hermione walked briskly out of the Great Hall after bidding her friends goodbye and to see them in class later. She was focused on taking the fastest route to the library when Draco caught her attention as she turned the corner._

_"Well, well, well, you seem to be in a bit of a hurry Granger…" She heard her name but the way it was said set off alarms in her head._

_Her shocked expression urged the blonde boy to continue, "You're not off on another errand for Weasley are you?"_

_Hermione's eyes widened but made no attempt to answer._

_Draco smirked, "You know Granger; we had actually started to admire you, those of us in Slytherin that is… You see, it's not as easy to gain my cousin's affection as you might think…"_

_Draco paused to give her time to mull over his words, "But then again, you did fit _Harry's_ standards… Save from the looks of course," he smirked at the bushy-haired girl's obvious blush even with his not so subtle jab of insult. "Almost like another… Daphne to him… wouldn't you say so Granger?"_

_This caused Hermione's blush to deepen and rendered her speechless for the time being._

_Draco pushed on with his point, "Now as to where you were headed off to, let me guess… does it have to do with Weasley's rule-breaking stunt on the third-floor corridor? About what the three-headed dog could be guarding?"_

_At this, Hermione floundered for words but came up with none._

_"As admirable as it was of you to have befriended my cousin… I never would have thought you had the guts to play him and Weasley at the same time… I wonder how cousin would take this news… Anyway, later Granger." Draco said the latter with a wave as he made a show of walking back to the Great Hall._

_"No… I…" Hermione said incoherently but the blonde boy had walked off. Her lips trembled as she fought back her tears. She was about to answer that she was just doing some research about someone called Nicholas Flamel that her red headed housemate said was connected to the three-headed dog in the locked room of the out-of-bounds corridor. But the way Draco had made her out to be a manipulative scarlet woman drew her mind blank of any thoughts other than possibility of losing her friendship with Harry._

_She fought back the tears as best she could, but it was a losing battle. Fortunately, she came upon the second floor girls' bathroom and immediately went inside as the tears fell and her sobs resounded into the empty bathroom._

* * *

As Hermione thought back on it, she felt a bit ashamed at how she reacted, granted that nobody saw her except for the resident ghost of the bathroom she was in but the specter had left as soon as her sobs filled the bathroom. Why had she cared so much about what Harry's cousin thought of her anyway? It wasn't like Draco's opinion spoke for everybody he's acquainted with. Of course his words hurt and what he tried to imply, even more so, but she knew she wasn't that kind of person.

Hermione is pulled from her thought when the bathroom door opened and closed. She stifled a sniffle to hide her presence, but apparently, who ever entered knew she was there.

"Hermione? Where are you? I know you're here sweetie, Myrtle told me."

She recognized that voice. Harry's cousin, the sweet sisterly one, not the blonde fellow first year boy with a constant sneer.

"Tonks? Sorry… I… I'll be right out… just a moment…" She said in between sniffles. "Who's Myrtle?"

Tonks chuckled as she leaned her back against the cubicle next to where Hermione was in, "You didn't know? This is her bathroom, nobody ever really comes here on account of how Myrtle would incessantly cry and annoy the crap out of anybody who mistakenly uses her bathroom for its' sole purpose."

Hermione giggled, "Then I guess it's a feat all on its own for me to have annoyed her out of her own bathroom."

Their laughter filled the girls' bathroom for a moment. Then Tonks sighed, "I know what Draco said, I caught the little snake wearing that arrogant smirk of his not too long after lunch. I just knew something was up."

Hermione remained silent, but miserably failed to stifle her sniffle.

"You do realize that whatever that upset you came from Draco Malfoy's mouth right?"

Hermione giggled through her sob, she stood up and went out of the cubicle. She found Tonks just outside the cubicle and the pink-haired seventh year gently pulled her into a sisterly embrace.

"Are you gonna be ok?" Tonks asked as she held the bushy-haired witch.

Hermione nodded and pulled back from the hug, "I'm ok now," she sighed, "But I don't think I'll be able to attend last period. I'm very late as it is."

Just then, both their attention were drawn when the bathroom door opened to reveal Harry and Daphne coming in but were beaten to the punch when Myrtle ghosted through the adjacent wall and exclaimed, "Tonks! I tried to stop them, but _she _insisted to bring _him _along into a _girls' _bathroom!" the ghost then scuffed, "Merlin! You two are first years!"

Harry and Daphne stood uncharacteristically wide-eyed for a moment. They weren't much surprised that Myrtle had reported them to someone, but that someone to be Tonks, things were bound to be hugely blown out of proportion; and judging by the devious grin the usually pink-haired but now purple-haired seventh year Hufflepuff sported, then it is bound to be.

Daphne cursed under her breath and turned to Harry, "You give Hermione our notes… I'll be doing some damage control." And with that said, she hurried out of the bathroom.

Tonks, hot on Daphne's heels, "On no you don't missy… Later cousin." she said the latter with a wink.

Harry sighed; whatever his cousin had in mind to tease him and Daphne with, must have been quite bad for the 'Slytherin Ice Princess' (a reputation she had strived to achieve in the past two months, not as good as Harry's 'Serpent among the Lions' courtesy of the youngest male Weasley, but she'll take it, though Hermione's 'The lost Ravenclaw' sounded cute.) to have made a hasty retreat.

Hermione floundered for the appropriate words to use or ask as to what just happened unaware of the rising blush on her already red cheeks. "Uhmmm… What were you and Daphne coming in to a girls' bathroom for?" she asked, and her blush intensified as soon as she thought about her question.

Harry went back to his usual demeanor and chuckled, "We were bringing you our notes for the classes you missed since lunch Gra… err… Hermione."

She smiled when Harry had to stop himself again, "Oh… Thank you."

She took the carefully folded parchments of notes to be copied later; then she remembered she must have looked hideous from all the crying she had done; she quickly turned around to put the parchments in her book bag and headed for the tap to wash her face.

* * *

Harry looked at Hermione with concern as she went about washing her face. He and Daphne of course found out what had happened from his cousin Draco himself. It never did bode well when the Malfoy heir sported his arrogant smirk coupled with absolute mirth flashed in his eyes; but there was very little the self-proclaimed Prince of Slytherin could have kept once he and Daphne got persuasive.

When Draco regretfully spilled the reason for his mirth under threat from Harry of siccing Daphne on him no-holds-barred, all Harry could do was sigh out a tired breath. Admittedly speaking, he had grown tired of Draco's blood prejudice ever since they were introduced as cousins. Malfoy Sr. couldn't have contested that fact and what with the Dark Lord being regrettably AWOL, Lucius was hard pressed to take Sirius' hand of friendship to Narcissa and by extension, him as the current Malfoy head.

Still, that didn't stop the Malfoy patriarch from influencing his heir of his pureblood dogma, such that there was only so much that his wife Narcissa could have done to negate the damage without attracting his ire.

Harry was relieved to have found out however that with his cousin away from his father since school started, the Malfoy heir mellowed out of his blood bigotry, though taking to heart the Slytherin vs. Gryffindor rivalry was only a touch better. For one, you can stay out of such schoolyard squabbles, and two, the youngest male Weasley took up the banner for the first year Gryffindors. Of course that only meant that whoever hung around Weasley was a target in Draco's sights.

When Hermione finished freshening up, "Hermione… I can't apologize enough for my cousin, I mean I'd probably be doing it forever if I did," he quipped, "But whatever hurtful immature things Draco said about you; I hope you realize that those aren't true about you. You know how they are with this whole Slytherin vs. Gryffindor rivalry nonsense."

Hermione on her part, blushed close to crimson as she recalled the only part of her and Draco's conversation that stuck with her, _'You see, it's not as easy to gain my cousin's affection as you might think…', 'But then again, you did fit _Harry's_ standards… Save from the looks of course, almost like another… Daphne to him… wouldn't you say so Granger?' _she then kept repeating her new mental mantra of 'It's just a schoolgirl crush, it's just a schoolgirl crush, it's just a schoolgirl crush,'

After she got herself back together, hoping that not much time had passed; Hermione looked up to meet Harry's gaze and smiled as she responded, "of course Harry. Tonks pretty much advised the same thing." Then added in low tone, "It's just that it hurts and I know I should have been used to it by now."

As Hermione looked away in shame, Harry paused in thought and made an educated guess, "I'm guessing you've had your fair share of experiences of being bullied back your primary?"

Hermione chewed on her bottom lip and nodded.

"Well then, nothing like a friend in the magical world to share your troubles to right? Besides, Daphne and I probably won't be able to exact revenge until the school year ends so you'll have plenty of time to warn them by then… that is… if you want to…"

The bushy-haired witch giggled and relented to open up, but downplayed some of her experiences a bit just to be safe. She wasn't sure if Harry meant that as a joke to lighten up the mood or if he and Daphne would really be handing out their revenge if they knew how miserable she was back in her primary because of bullies.

* * *

Hogwarts, Great Hall

Halloween Feast

October 31, 1991

Hogwarts' Students and Faculty alike started to fill the Great Hall for their annual Halloween feast; One of the highly anticipated holidays where the entirety of Hogwarts elves pulled all the stops to serve all in the castle a wider variety of dishes and Halloween treats; though if one found a trick, all heads were sure to turn to Gryffindor's resident pranksters, the Weasley twins.

The Headmaster sat on the head's chair with his usual grandfatherly demeanor as he enjoyed sampling the sweets. Although on the inside, he's had a feeling of foreboding since the day started.

Dumbledore has checked and rechecked the castle wards again and again and have found no anomaly. The Hall was nearly filled, save from a few stragglers to the feast. With the nature of the school wards, no one could actually hide from the Headmaster inside the castle as well as within the grounds; but it was decided long ago by the founders themselves that to ensure privacy, it has to be decided between the Headmaster and the four heads of houses whether there was a necessity to use such feature.

Dumbledore decided that he'd feel more at ease if every student were present in the Great Hall. So he broadcasted through the castle paintings and ghosts to hurry up any student running late for the feast.

Just moments after the Headmaster sent the reminders; he visibly stiffened as the wards flared in warning. Whoever or whatever hid the things has to have had an extensive knowledge of Hogwarts castle's particular wards or one of his staff. Only one wasn't present at the time.

"Albus, is there something wrong?" Professor McGonagall asked as she was first to notice of Dumbledore's reaction.

As his response, Dumbledore let them feel the wards' alarm that indicated the castle has been infiltrated. He narrowed down on the uninvited guests and found or rather felt half a dozen mountain trolls separately roaming the castle.

With a nod from the Headmaster, the professors took to their duties.

Hagrid bounded off out of the Great Hall as Professor Croaker eerily followed.

The heads of houses were at their own house tables, informed their students of the situation and then gave stern instructions that sounded about the same way regardless of who instructed them. "You are to remain in your seat even if you are finished eating," they left no room for questions, "Prefects, wands out, protect your charges."

The Headmaster stood, absolute silence fell, "Professor McGonagall, if you will…" he gestured with his hand.

_"Piertotum Locomotor" _Professor McGonagall incanted, while the Headmaster sent the specific commands to the castle suits of armor that were mobilized.

The Great Hall door opened and the students that were running late for the feast milled through the entrance, escorted by half a dozen animated suits of armor, bewildered as to why but would soon find out.

Dumbledore headed for the Great Hall doors but was met halfway by Professor Sprout, followed by Tonks.

"Headmaster, Ms. Tonks here says that Mr. Potter and Ms. Granger haven't arrived for the feast and they weren't in the group that was escorted by castle suits." The Hufflepuff Head of house discreetly informed.

Dumbledore looked grave but schooled his expression, "Where have you last seen them Ms. Tonks?" he asked.

"Myrtle's Bathroom Professor… err… Second floor Girls' bathroom."

The Headmaster merely nodded in response and hurried off to the said bathroom with Professor McGonagall along with Professor Sprout and Tonks hot on his heels.

Before Tonks was entirely out of the Great Hall however, she gestured to Daphne at the Slytherin table to set the blonde at ease. She looked like she was about to rise from her seat and sprint ahead towards Myrtle's bathroom, but with Tonks' gesture she contented to stay put.

* * *

A bit earlier before the Great Hall commotion started, Harry and Hermione were oblivious of the time as they spent their time talking about Hermione's life back in grade school, though Harry occasionally shared some tidbits of his life as well.

"You're kidding!" Hermione exclaimed in wide-eyed surprise, not to mention that once again she sported a very definite blush, she briefly wondered if she could learn to control such reaction given a few more years around Harry but dismissed the thought and went back to their conversation. "A girl three years older than you just suddenly walked up to you and kissed you!?"

Harry shrugged in response, "I honestly thought that was just how the French say hello…" he said with a goofy grin, one trait he did get from his godfather though not seen very often on the Lord Black outside those he considered family.

Hermione floundered for words, "You were five! She was eight! On your first day at Beauxbatons…" then her eyes widened once more as a thought occurred to her. "uhmm… You and Daphne may have been very young at the time but… how did she react when she you told her about that?"

Harry chuckled and for a moment, Hermione could have sworn that a very slight pink tinge rose on his cheeks but she wasn't sure. "She threw a tantrum and demanded to be enrolled into the Beauxbatons Elementary as well but she was already on Muggle School at the time and apparently her parents found her reaction amusing… err… don't tell her I told you that…"

Hermione giggled.

"Sorry to interrupt you two, but you're both running late for the Halloween feast. I suggest you get moving." Myrtle who had been floating about just listening in on the conversation reminded upon receiving the instruction from the Headmaster through the wards.

"Oh, thank you Myrtle, I honestly didn't notice we've been talking that long." Hermione said as she stood up from the unusually clean bathroom floor.

Harry followed suit and was about to walk towards the corner he had placed his book bag when he noticed Myrtle's expression shifted into that of concentration, as if listening to an instruction then turned alarmed and worried. "Is something wrong Myrtle?"

The ghost snapped back in attention and floated rather quickly towards him and Hermione, startling the bushy-haired witch.

"Quickly you two, the castle have been infiltrated by mountain trolls! Most of the school is already in the Great Hall. The suits of armors have been animated and should escort you there."

Harry and Hermione barely took a couple of seconds to analyze and hurried off to exit the bathroom when the ground reverberated with huge heavy footfalls as the sound neared the bathroom door.

Harry voiced out their thoughts as both he and Hermione slowly backed away from the bathroom door, "That can't be good."

Hermione whimpered in agreement as the situation described just a moment ago hit her fully. Of course she's read about some of the basic magical creatures muggleborns like her were expected to look up upon entering the magical world; and mountain trolls are supposed to grow up to a height of not less than twelve feet and stunk _real _bad, the older the nastier the smell.

The pair continued to back away from the door, "Myrtle, call for help." The ghost nodded at the urgency of Harry's order and floated off through the wall.

The emerald-eyed wizard then turned to Hermione, who now sported a pale face but was clearly thinking of some way out to safety. "Hermione, if the thing does come inside, I'll try to attract its attention. Once I do, I want you to run to the Great Hall as fast as you can. The suits of armor should see to your safety." Just as Harry finished, the bathroom door busted open with a troll's mighty swing.

Both Harry and Hermione were far enough the opposite corner and simply avoided the number of splintered wood that soared almost everywhere. Sounds from outside the bathroom were amplified and they could vaguely hear roars from the mountain trolls that were probably fighting animated suits of armor. Harry hoped that there were suits along their corridor but it was either those suits were preoccupied or out on patrol that the mountain troll had just luckily managed to slip through.

With the mountain troll now inside the bathroom and blocked off their only exit as it scanned the room, it spotted them diagonally across the bathroom. It let out a roar which Harry took as his cue, he hoped Hermione would remember what to do once he had gotten the troll's attention and hopefully away from the only exit.

Harry with his Ebony wand in hand he incanted, _"Stupefy… Stupefy… Stupefy…"_ with three moderate successions of the same wand movements, his stunners squarely hit the troll's head. He wasn't banking on it to work against its thick hide but he certainly succeeded on getting its undivided attention.

The mountain troll rushed Harry with its club raised high as it plowed through the cubicles. Harry fired off one last stunner to the troll's head before rolling off to its left side.

His stunner worked splendidly as a distraction, when the troll closed its eyes as the pretty red light came close to its face, but kept running towards a circular series of sink taps that surprisingly survived the troll's pummeling without so much as a scratch.

Harry was relieved to have noticed Hermione slowly inching towards the bathroom door. He turned his attention back to the troll and upon closer inspection; he noted that this particular mountain troll had to be a forager of some sort; smooth hard club, relative absence of spikes on its garments as well as battle scars.

His chances shot up with that observation, so he took a gamble and aimed for the troll's left arm, _"Perfringo.. Perforo.. Everbero. Everbero." _His amateurish spell chain did its job as it broke the troll's Humerus with a sickening crack.

The troll howled in pain and charged Harry once more with club raised half-way with only one arm. Since Harry dedicated a lot of his magic to strengthen his spell chain enough to have penetrated the troll's hide, he felt a bit winded but managed to stagger an escape when the troll smashed its club to where he had been standing.

To an observer like Hermione however, it looked like the troll had succeeded in smashing Harry with its club. So beyond any reason, she screamed out, "HARRY!"

That apparently wasn't the right thing to do as the troll shifted its attention and preferred an unmoving prey as opposed to a very nimble one. It slowly stalked off towards Hermione and the bushy-haired witch stood frozen in fear.

Harry grimaced at that unlucky circumstance; he holstered his ebony wand and sprinted towards the troll. Using the scattered debris of the cubicles as a platform and jumped on the troll's back; hide and garments thick enough to not notice the unwelcome rider, but its back was rough enough for Harry to have established a footing and steadied himself with his right arm.

He drew his Yew wand from his left holster and aimed it point-blank on the troll's head. Without a second's pause, he casted forgoing wand movements but poured in more magic instead, _"Perforo!" _his first spell bored through and looked like a gunshot wound, he stuck his wand an inch in through the trolls head and casted once more, _"Ustulo!"_

A conflagrating spell strong enough to incinerate their very expensive training dummy back home, fired off inside a troll's skull was a recipe for a bathroom make-over as the troll's head exploded in blood and gore.

The troll's body fell front first and caused Harry to lose his footing. He fell hard on the bathroom floor. As he slowly lost his grip on consciousness, Harry found his vision obscured by Hermione's bushy hair as she helped him to sit up.

"Sorry you had to see that Hermione… but I didn't think we had a lot of options." Harry said with half-lidded eyes.

"No… Harry… I… It's ok… I… thought… you were…" Hermione stuttered out but eventually contented to just hold him.

* * *

The party of four that comprised of Professors McGonagall and Sprout, Tonks, led a little ways ahead by the Headmaster was soon joined by six of the animated suit of armors. Not long after they left the Great Hall and made their way to the said bathroom, they were headed off by a certain ghost.

"Headmaster! Two Gryffindor first years are trapped inside my bathroom! The boy sent me to find help; they've got a mountain troll just outside the door!" Myrtle reported with urgency, effectively lowering the temperature of the area she floated on.

Dumbledore nodded, "Everyone, we must hurry." And with that they moved once more with much haste.

As they ran through the halls, sounds of fighting distinctly reached their ears and judging from the howls of pain, the animated suits of armor were clearly winning.

When they finally came upon Myrtle's bathroom, fear crept in to those present save from their escort suits of armor.

The door was clearly smashed off its hinges. They slowly made their to the bathroom and have already made out most of the damage dealt inside, what with splinters of wood strewn everywhere along with pieces of broken toilets and red stains.

Tonks was already pale when Myrtle reported but seeing the stains of blood on the floor, that was it for her as her hair turned white and she broke in to a sob.

Her head of house retreated to comfort her as they were promptly surrounded by four of their escort suits while the Headmaster and Professor McGonagall braved through what they feared to be worst fate that had befallen two of their students.

What they found however utterly surprised them. A fully grown mountain troll laid front first, headless. The stains of blood it seemed were the former contents of the troll's skull. Then they found Hermione with a floating blob of light just above her, a charm that Professor Flitwick always excitedly shared with students who were eager to learn, a derivation of _Lumos_. The bushy-haired witch cradled Harry as she softly sobbed with one hand clutching her wand while she stroked his face with the other.

Hermione looked up when she noticed an added illumination around her. She gasped when she saw her head of house the Headmaster, "Professors! Quick! It's Harry! He's lost consciousness just a moment ago and… I wanted to bring him to the hospital wing… but… but… I didn't know if it was safe… and I don't… if his condition is bad… but he seemed to be sleeping…" She said and gradually gained speed.

Now that help has arrived, Hermione had finally given in to shock as her mind ran a mile a minute.

Dumbledore would have hit the first year Gryffindor with a sleeping spell, one which worked splendidly to victims of shock such as Ms. Granger before him when a flash of pink hair shot past him headed towards Hermione.

"HERMIONE! HARRY! Thank God you're both alive!" Tonks said as she kneeled in front of the two. She would have pulled them both into a hug if she hadn't noticed Harry lying unconscious on Hermione's lap.

Tonks gave the Professor space to perform their rough version of diagnostic spells.

Professor McGonagall spoke, "From what I can tell, Mr. Potter nearly exhausted most of his magic, and observing the room, I'd say he had to, given the damage he dealt to the troll." She sternly stated.

Dumbledore merely nodded once more, he had much to ponder but getting the two students proper medical attention was the top priority. "Let us get these two to the hospital wing, and the suits did splendidly by the way, the threat has been dealt with. Professor McGonagall, would you kindly have them clean up after themselves." He requested, to which his deputy Headmistress complied.

With that, they quickly made their way to the hospital wing where Madam Pomfrey went to work on Harry and Hermione. She gave Hermione a calming draught, dreamless sleep potion and also required her to spend the night for monitoring. With Harry, Professor McGonagall was correct on her diagnostic that the young Gryffindor lost consciousness because of both magical and physical exhaustion. They were assured that with enough bed rest, he should bounce right back up.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore once again found himself in deep thought. After seeing to it that the children have been informed of the necessary information as to the cause of the surprise lockdown and sent to bed, he immediately went about informing the parents of Ms. Granger and as for Mr. Potter, his godfather was notified via Floo and will be around in the morning before lunch.

Shortly after he sent out the letter for the Grangers, he simply sat and pondered the events of the previous night. It's currently around two in the morning but it's not exactly the first time he'd lost time for sleep. Between the infiltration of the wards followed by the attack of clearly confounded mountain trolls and the devastation dealt in that second floor bathroom, he certainly had much to ponder.

* * *

Hogwarts, Hospital Wing

3:00am

November 1, 1991

Harry woke with a start when a sudden shortage of air troubled his rhythmic breathing. A quick survey of his surroundings told him all he needed to know. He's in the hospital wing. Last he remembered was falling asleep on Hermione's lap as the concerned girl sobbed while she casted the floating _Lumos _spell.

He lifted his head just high enough to see the bushy-haired bookworm sleeping soundly across his own hospital bed. The weight he felt as he lifted his head however told him of the reason that woke him. He slowly felt for the silk fabric of his invisibility cloak and sure enough, he found Daphne sound asleep on his chest when he lifted the cloak.

The school must have been informed of what happened or if not, they would have been told to head back to the safety of their dormitories when all the trolls have been dealt with by Hogwarts' animated defenses. Of course his best friend would have noticed if he and Hermione never did show up at the Great Hall and put two and two together.

As for his cloak, he might have let it slip to her the password to Gryffindor tower; she needed access to his mini library anyway; or Neville could have just handed her the cloak since Neville had access to his trunk as well.

Harry shook Daphne awake. She slowly looked up at him with half-lidded dry tear-streaked eyes. He wiped Daphne's cheeks gently with his thumbs, more of a gesture but she was appeased that he's okay nonetheless.

No words were needed as they shared a comfortable silence. Daphne hugged him tighter now that she's awake.

Harry softly chuckled, "Sorry, I made you worry."

Daphne buried her face on his chest and mumbled her reply. He laughed softly as he hugged her.

To an observer it may have seemed weird for the Gryffindor first year to be hugging nothing but air, but Madam Pomfrey understood what was going on. The aged mediwitch has been a Hogwarts' school nurse almost as long as Minerva has been a transfigurations mistress.

Madam Pomfrey cleared her throat and said, "Oh good Mr. Potter, you're awake. Here are some potions to help you recover faster from exhaustion." She handed him the vials and gently pulled off the invisibility cloak off the blonde girl, "Now Ms. Greengrass, I have no Idea how you got past my wards but I think it's best if you let Mr. Potter rest until morning. You may sleep on the bed next to Ms. Granger until then. And here is a dreamless sleep potion for you, just in case."

Daphne, unperturbed by being discovered, relented and got up from Harry's bed to lie on the bed next to Hermione.

Satisfied that her instructions weren't defied, the mediwitch smiled warmly and said, "Now rest well you two, the Headmaster canceled a day's classes." She then went back to her own quarters to get in a couple hours sleep.

* * *

Six hours of additional sleep seemed sufficient enough for Harry to have recovered most of his spent energy so he eased into consciousness. First thing he noticed was the presence of someone sitting beside him. He turned to see Neville, "Morning Neville, good book?" he greeted and asked.

"It's brilliant mate! Where'd you get this?" Neville said without so much as looking up from the tome.

"Muggle bookstore, its a great reference book for herbology." Harry said.

Neville nodded, still immersed in the material, "The girls went down to have breakfast by the way, so I took their shift, they wouldn't leave if I didn't. Oh, and your mirror was making a ruckus, so I answered it, Sirius called, said he'll come by to pick you up around ten to visit your parents."

"I see thanks. So the Headmaster cancelled classes today huh? What were you told the night before?"

"Just that the castle was infiltrated and brought in around half a dozen mountain trolls, clues all pointing to a member of the staff or an adult at least who's well informed, immensely powerful and talented enough to manipulate Hogwarts' wards and under the nose of the greatest wizard of the century, that basically narrows down their list of suspects." Neville nonchalantly narrated the information he knew.

Harry hummed in response but didn't add his insight, "Well there's not much we can do about that, let's leave it to the grownups, and I'm pretty sure my mindscape is in shambles after suffering magical exhaustion last night."

Neville didn't bother to respond when Harry went to center himself. Between the two of them, he was actually the first to practice mind arts, it was an imperatively required excise by the mind healers of Saint Mungo's hospital; he did after all watch his parents get tortured to madness from the closet his mother hid him in. Though getting his mother back meant a quicker healing process for both mother and child, Neville simply strived to keep up practice with the obscure art.

* * *

Hermione with furrowed brows as she chewed on her bottom lip, walked with Daphne back to the Hospital wing. Between them, they both carried about twice the amount of Harry's usual breakfast on Madam Pomfrey's instructions.

What had her deep in thought however was of the conversation she had with _Weasley_. As petty she knew she was being, she couldn't help but point some blame on the redhead. Had Weasley not so blatantly ignored and broken the rules, those three would not have ended up in that third floor corridor room where they found the Cerberus standing over a trapdoor, meaning they would not have approached and enticed her with a bit of research work about a certain name they got from the loud grounds keeper, then Harry's cousin would not have insulted her and would have just let her be, meaning she would not have ended up in Myrtle's bathroom to cry her eyes out over something so ridiculous.

Hermione was snapped from her thoughts when Daphne spoke, "Your magic is spiking Hermione. Children our age aren't supposed to be adept at feeling magic yet but even I can feel torrents rolling off of you, keep that up and you might end up like Harry. I'm assuming bad images of last night are getting back to you?"

The Gryffindor first year looked down but responded, "Something like that,"

"Hmmm… I wonder; Harry's godfather will come around before noon to pick Harry up…" Daphne mused as they walked the final corridor straight to the Hospital wing.

What Daphne said however, alarmed Hermione, "What!? He's godfather is pulling him out of school?"

Daphne's eyes widened, surprised and a bit confused as to how Hermione jumped to that conclusion; she chuckled and shook her head, "No, it's not that. Today's November first, they'll be visiting his parents' graves, they do every year."

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief and just said, "Oh,"

* * *

Daphne, followed by Hermione, entered the hospital wing and made a beeline towards Harry's bed where the curtains were drawn. They found Harry, Neville and a man who shared Harry's aristocratic features only more pronounced whom Hermione assumed to be Harry's godfather.

"Hi there you two; Hermione, this is my godfather Sirius Black. Sirius, Hermione Granger." Harry introduced.

Sirius smiled at the young girl and held out a hand. Hermione mirrored the gesture and said, "Pleasure to meet you Lord Black."

Sirius raised an eyebrow at the greeting and then glanced towards Daphne, "I see Daphne found a student…" He commented with a smirk, "But I assure you Ms. Granger, the pleasure is all mine, after all it's not every day you get to meet the damsel in distress my godson here just had to save."

At Sirius' comment, Hermione had flashes of the previous night's images; where she thought the troll got Harry, then when Harry jumped on its back and pointed his bone white wand directly at the troll's head and shot a spell point blank that bore a whole through its skull much like a gunshot through a man's head. She let out a gasped at the memory that forcefully presented itself.

"Is something wrong?" Sirius asked when they saw Hermione's reaction.

"Oh uhmm… Sorry…" Hermione stuttered.

"She's constantly having memory flashes of last night…" Daphne interjected as she placed a comforting hand on Hermione's shoulder, "I was wondering Lord Black, if you know the charm Aurors and hit wizards use to deal with trauma."

"Oh, I see… I know it, though I may be a little rusty, haven't got the chance to use it in a long time. Perhaps we should ask Madam Pomfrey."

At the mention of her name, the Mediwitch strode out of her office, "Anything I can help with? By the way Mr. Potter, no overdoing things for the rest of the week, your magic recovered surprisingly fast but its best to prevent tiring yourself out anytime soon." She said then turned to Sirius.

"Poppy, do you by any chance know that wonderful charm to deal with trauma?" Sirius asked.

"Of course, but I wasn't told of the events last night to have deemed it necessary when the Professors brought these two in." Madam Pomfrey said, all the while looking at Harry who was eating his brunch that the girls brought.

Harry looked up when he felt her gaze, "I'm good Madam Pomfrey…"

"It's Ms. Granger, Poppy," Sirius said.

The Mediwitch looked at Hermione and said, "Very well, if one of you would be willing to share a memory of the events so that I may be able to determine the strength of the charm to use,"

"I can give you that Madam Pomfrey," Harry offered and then turned to the small table beside his hospital bed where his wand holsters were placed. He found that his left holster was empty; one of the professors must have picked up his Yew wand the previous night. He decided to ask his head of house later when he returned from Godric's Hollow. So he just picked up his Ebony wand, pointed it at his temple and drew a silvery strand.

Sirius grinned and pulled a sphere from his pocket, "I knew there was a reason I brought this."

Harry chuckled and placed the memory strand on the thought sphere. "Err, you may not want to watch that here, might traumatize Hermione further." He said with an apologetic glance towards Hermione in which she just nodded.

"Right, your office Poppy?" Sirius said as he let the Mediwitch lead the way.

Sirius and Madam Pomfrey watched the brief memory in the Mediwitch's office. They both emerged a couple of minutes later, Madam Pomfrey wore a grave expression mixed with a bit of anger that the Headmaster didn't tell her about what the aftermath of the event she just watched looked like, since Professor McGonagall didn't really stay long as she had to return to her students back in the Hall.

Sirius on the other hand strode over to his godson and ruffled his hair. "Damn proud of you cub, though why don't you start small next time hmmm? That troll was just too big for comfort, nearly got you there that second swing."

Hermione whimpered when she heard Sirius' last comment but accepted the older man's apologetic look.

Madam Pomfrey herself frowned at Sirius comments, "Are you sure you won't need the charm as well Mr. Potter?"

Harry shook his head, "No, I think I'm good Madam Pomfrey."

The Mediwitch relented, "Very well, but the offer stands Mr. Potter, come around anytime. Now Ms. Granger, follow me please."

With that said, Sirius also chimed in, "We best get going as well cub; Remus already went ahead."

Harry nodded, already finished with his food, "Could we pass by the manor? I need a bath."

Sirius smirked and ruffled his godson's hair, "Of course cub,"

"See you later, Daph, Hermione, Nev." Harry waved.

"Later Harry," the three chorused.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore hasn't moved once from his chair in his office since the night before. Earlier at the break of dawn, Hagrid reported that the remains of the defeated trolls have been cleared; none of the trolls survived a confrontation against the animated castle defenses. Professor Croaker followed shortly after to report that the out-of-bounds corridor was indeed approached but whether the culprit was surprised at the rune carvings on the entrance of the room or if he himself was detected before he could spring a trap, he wasn't sure.

After those reports, he dismissed his thoughts about the attack after he had determined that it was just indeed a diversion. He'd give it more thorough thought later. He had a more pressing concern to be dealt with, namely, Harry Potter.

When the wizened wizard saw the state of that bathroom the boy was in the previous night, he had dreaded for the worse. Instead, he found the boy cradled in his softly sobbing friend's lap with a dead headless troll just mere meters away.

The absence of animated suits of armor pointed to the fact that it was the boy who had taken care of the troll, perhaps to save the girl's life as well as his own. What had Dumbledore extremely worried however was the mere fact that young Harry dealt such damage and upon a quick scan of the distraught Ms. Granger's mind showed that there was no hesitation in the boy's eyes when he killed the troll.

As both children were being levitated to the hospital wing, he felt a chill run up his spine when he found Harry's bloodstained wand on the floor. The bone-white wand was certainly reminiscent of Tom Riddle's wand he had seen kill many in the first war. He promptly took the wand and planned to have young Harry visit his office under the pretense of retrieving his wand, and then that is where he can have his chance to thoroughly scan the boy's mind, after a fair bit of questioning of course. He simply needed to know.

Now that he thought of it, Harry should have returned around five minutes ago and his head of house should be leading him to his office by now.

Sure enough, there was a knock on his door, "Enter," the Headmaster responded.

Professor McGonagall entered followed by Harry. "I've brought Mr. Potter, Headmaster."

"Ah yes, thank you Professor McGonagall. Take a seat Mr. Potter." Dumbledore said.

The Gryffindor Head of House took it as her leave and exited the Headmaster's office.

As the door closed, the Headmaster spoke, "Lemon-drop Harry?" He offered.

"No thanks Professor," Harry politely refused.

"On to the matter at hand then," Dumbledore said and proceeded, "In light of the previous night's events, was it really necessary to deal such destruction on that troll Harry?"

With his question asked, the Headmaster took his chance when the boy met his eyes to answer his question. He pushed with a probe for the purpose of digging for the boy's truest and most honest answer. He was of course quite surprised when he found himself no longer sitting behind his desk in his office, but what seemed to be an outdoor muggle café.

Sat across Dumbledore, is Harry, though he no longer wore his formal wizard robes he was wearing when he came in. Harry was now clad in expensive looking semi-formal muggle clothing.

The boy across the Headmaster held a slight grimace as he rubbed his temple, "Now that wasn't very nice Professor, I believe Legilimency without the other person's consent is still against the law. Do tell me the reason for this Professor…" Harry said while gently rubbing his head to soothe a slight bout of migraine from the sudden intrusion.

Dumbledore blinked in surprise when he found himself inside a mindscape as he didn't expect Harry to have one. "My sincerest apologies my boy, I was merely looking to ensure…"

Harry calmly cut the Headmaster off though his head still throbbed in mild pain because of his and the Headmaster's obvious age gap in mental processes, "Quite understandable really for you to be worried Professor… No first year could have brought down a fully grown mountain troll… But I remorselessly killed it without a second thought… I assumed you were looking to check on that Professor; though I wouldn't mind for a fair bit of warning next time"

"Quite the intuitive my mind you have my boy; I see that my concerns were, shall we say, misplaced." The Headmaster said.

"No, not at all Professor though since we're here, would care to take a look around? Besides I don't think I would have been able to stop you anyway had you really wanted to dig through my mind."

With that comment, Dumbledore took the chance to look around and was simply amazed at how Harry had arranged his mindscape. The entirety looked like a city, but what tickled his curiosity however was that there were people walking about like it was all typical day on a fast paced and productive city.

"I must admit that your mindscape is quite unique, though won't it be hard to defend? I assume that the people around us contain your memories." The Headmaster complimented.

A ghost of a smile made its way on Harry's expression, he said, "Some are… I was wondering Headmaster, if you'd like to test out the rules? I'm not sure if I've gotten it down yet."

"Of course Harry. Now let's see…" Dumbledore stroked his beard as he appeared to be deep in thought, "Magic is given, one still has to breathe, and you've certainly done a good job at limiting us within the laws of gravity… Hmmm… as far as I can tell you've done very well on your mindscape's construction."

Harry nodded, "Of course, had this been a more forceful attack…" he mused. "We may have been a bit sidetracked Professor, but to answer your question. The troll may not have deserved its fate, but Hermione couldn't have deserved death either had I paused for a moment of indecision. That is all I have to say."

Dumbledore peered at Harry through his half-moon spectacle for a moment and said, "Yes... You've certainly given an old man much to think about my boy. Shall we adjourn this meeting in my office?"

Harry nodded and they instantly found themselves back in the Headmaster's office.

"I believe this is yours Harry," Dumbledore said as he handed Harry his wand back.

Harry took his wand and holstered it, "Will that be all Professor?"

"Yes, that will be all Harry." Dumbledore said, now with a contemplative look on his face.

Harry nodded, stood and exited the Headmaster's office.

* * *

Hermione headed up to the owlery after she spent most of the day composing a letter for her parents. After the charm was placed on her by Madam Pomfrey, she took the opportunity to write a letter to her parents about Halloween. She was sure that either her Head of House or the Headmaster himself would have already informed her parents of the incident. She was hoping to down play the events with her letter for fear that they might pull her out of Hogwarts if they thought that the magical world was too dangerous for their liking.

She was slightly surprised when she reached the owlery and found that she wasn't alone, "Hello Daphne, didn't expect to see you here…" She greeted and looked at Daphne's right shoulder, "Oh, and hello Hedwig."

Daphne smiled, "Weasley and Malfoy are at it again; with the upcoming Gryffindor/Slytherin quidditch match, those two seem to be under the impression that they'll actually be playing for their house teams with the way they throw horrific insults at each other."

"There were still at it? Didn't start that right around lunch?" Hermione amusedly asked.

Daphne nodded as she shared Hermione's amusement, "That was when they were still making sense… Well that… and the Weasley twins' input made it more amusing. Anyway, out to send a letter? Hedwig can deliver your letter, it seems racing the post owl in the morning has lost its appeal."

Hermione giggled at the snowy owl's suddenly proud stance, "You don't mind do you Hedwig?" she asked and the snowy owl held out a leg for her tie her letter as an answer. She beamed and thanked both owl and owner as they watched Hedwig fly off.

After the small dot that was the snowy owl finally disappeared, Hermione and Daphne turned just in time to see Harry walking up as he smiled at both of them. "There you two are; how are you Hermione?"

Hermione smiled, "I'm quite good, and the charm was wonderful. I'm certainly not that jumpy anymore… I think…"

Harry chuckled, "Well it should help. Now, why don't head in the castle, it's getting cold up here."

Both girls followed Harry and headed back inside the castle as it was also nearing dinner time.

* * *

**A/N: As always, I would appreciate your reviews and opinions; and don't hesitate to ask any question through PM.**


	8. Christmas at Hogwarts

**A/N: New chapter. Hope you like it.**

**UnBeta'd Chapter**

* * *

Hogwarts' Library

November 23, 1991

"Why exactly are we doing this Hermione? I mean advance study is fun and all but why not have Harry with us?" Daphne asked as she opened another runes reference book and had to squint her eyes at the small piece of parchment with runic array they were _trying _to translate.

"Daphne…" Hermione whined and then giggled, "I told you, Harry helped enough already. I mean, he pointed out who Nicholas Flamel is, provided a book for elaboration, he even knew his relation to the Headmaster and apart from all that, he was generous enough to lend copies of his mother's notes on ancient runes we can base from."

Daphne smirked, "So why exactly am I here?"

Hermione matched Daphne's smirk with a wide grin and cheekily answered, "Because you're the smartest person I know aside from Harry."

Daphne sighed and held out her hand.

Hermione's brows furrowed, "What?" She asked.

"Notes, so that we can get this over with."

Hermione beamed and quickly handed the blonde some of the copied notes along with a rather thick book, "Thanks,"

_o0o_

_Hermione sat at her usual comfy armchair by the common room fire while she reread her essays to be passed on Monday. It's been two weeks since the troll incident and as expected of a school filled with adolescent children, even if it was a school for witchcraft and wizardry, the school rumor mill churned some pretty ridiculous if not ambitious stories of adventure and talks of a student taking down a troll or two along with the animated suits of armor. No names were specifically mentioned but speculations were going around._

_Surprisingly enough, her and Harry's absence wasn't even mentioned through the whirlwind of events the previous couple of weeks._

_Hermione was pulled from her concentration of looking over her essays when Ron Weasley noisily walked down from the boy's dormitory with Dean and Seamus. She was rather surprised to see them up before Harry and Neville, especially since it was currently a Saturday._

_Ron bounded from the stairs towards where Hermione was seated and barely noticed the girl's frown before she schooled her expressions. "Hermione! So, how goes things? Found anything about Flamel?" the redhead asked._

_"Sorry Ronald, but honestly, I've scoured the entire library and found nothing on Nicholas Flamel. Will you please just give it up, you've lost over sixty points for Gryffindor that last time and I don't fancy much, getting caught in the crossfire between you and Draco." Hermione said, though scouring the library for information was a blatant lie of course but Ron didn't need to know that._

_Ron was the typical preteen that basically wore his emotions as his face reddened and his attention on Flamel was successfully diverted, "Malfoy!? What's that git done to you!?" he exclaimed._

_At that moment, Harry had walked down from their dorm and leaned behind the couch where Dean and Seamus were seated, "Thomas, what's got Weasley so irate this early in the day?"_

_Dean and Seamus jumped from the sudden presence of Harry behind them, "Bloody hell mate! Stop doing that!" Dean exclaimed after almost jumping off the couch._

_Harry had bemused expression on his face, "Stop doing what?" he asked and the three of them heard Neville snort and chuckle in amusement._

_Dean shook his head to reorganize his thoughts, "Never mind… Well you know how Malfoy is literally Ron's trigger… Well that and probably because Hermione couldn't find anything about Nicholas Flamel; but it's mostly Malfoy." He nonchalantly said what was supposed to be close guarded secret between him, Ron and Seamus._

_"Flamel you say…" Harry said as he wore a contemplative look while Dean and Seamus went wide-eyed, "Say, do you collect chocolate frog cards?"_

_At their nod, Harry said, "Take out the one that has Professor Dumbledore on it and read; you should find Nicholas Flamel there."_

_Dean quickly fumbled for his cards he always brought around as Seamus did the same, "Ron! Harry told us where we can find Flamel!" Seamus called out to the youngest male Weasley before the redhead could press Hermione about Malfoy. Ron's attention was successfully diverted again._

_Hermione on her part breathed a sigh of relief and slightly mentally berated herself for asking Harry about Flamel sooner; more of a justification on her part than to actually provide Ron with the information; the redhead's trio has caused enough point for Gryffindor as it is._

_Hermione was pulled from her musings when Ron spoke again, when he finished reading the card that Seamus handed to him, he said, "Alchemy! That's it! No wonder you couldn't find anything Hermione, you are a muggleborn after all, though no offense." Rather of himself._

_Had this been her grade school years, Hermione would have scoffed and huffed at Ron's apparent lack of tact, but she just shrugged her shoulders and said, "Oh no, none taken. Does this mean you'll be handling the research on Flamel now?" she hopefully asked._

_Ron nodded, "Oh yeah sure, well c'mon guys!" he said and bounded out the common room followed by Dean and Seamus._

_Once the three were out of the common room, Hermione breathed out a sigh of relief and went back to looking over her essays while Harry and Neville took individual couches and lay down. Neville took to twirling his wand as he let his mind wander; Harry seemed to be taking a nap. It wasn't rare for him occasionally laze around, Harry always finished all his work ahead of time anyway and still have time to spend with his friends as well as write back to some letters which Hermione curiously glanced at one time and found them to be in French._

_Hermione stared at his sleeping face for a few moments before she fully went back to looking over her essays._

_o0o_

Hermione groaned in exhaustion as she looked at their collective finished translation work on the runic arrays, though their work maybe considered roughly done direct translations at best, considering they were first years to achieve such was still impressive.

Not long after they have started their translation work, Hermione and Daphne were joined by Tracey and Blaise, though both only came to get some peace and quiet since Draco apparently decided to gloat about Gryffindor's lucky victory against Slytherin on the first quidditch game of the season; the Gryffindor quidditch team was a mere ten points ahead after the Slytherin seeker caught the snitch.

"You know Hermione; you're not really in a position to complain. I wasn't expecting translation work like this until O.W.L. year, but nonetheless, advance study has its' pros." Daphne said in a cool manner.

Hermione pouted, "I know, and sorry. I just remembered who we're doing this for." She growled after her latter statement.

Daphne smirked and said, "Weasley must be lacking a few brain functions if he thinks that knowing the meaning of this runic array etched along the wall of the forbidden corridor will get him inside that classroom with the Cerberus again. What does he expect to gain though?"

Hermione scuffed, "He seems to have gotten it in his head that Nicholas Flamel's Philosopher's Stone is the thing that's being closely and securely guarded by the Professors."

Daphne turned contemplative, "Hmmm... I can understand the appeal considering its Weasley we're talking about."

Hermione's shoulders slumped, "I suppose… But honestly, he's the only one bothered by his family's financial standing. Why did Draco have to use that particular insult right when _Ronald Bilius Weasley _found out about Nicholas Flamel, the only known maker of the Philosopher's stone!?"

Daphne smirked but held her comment while Tracey giggled and said, "Lower your voice Hermione, or Madam Pince might kick us out and ban us for a week. I won't let you have me banned out of my only sanctuary from Draco, thank you very much." She then turned to Blaise, "Speaking of which, do you think Draco's out of the common room by now?"

Blaise peered up from what he was reading, "We have been here long… and I'm sure he's vented quite enough, but do you want to risk it? I haven't got the patience to listen to his incessant whining and gloating about things that have utterly no concern to him."

Tracey thought it out for a moment and finally agreed with her friend, "Perhaps you're right, dinner will be in an hour anyway." She then turned to both Daphne and Hermione, "So, where's Harry been all day; and Neville for that matter." She asked.

Hermione only looked up from going over their work again. She let Daphne answer, "Last I saw him, Neville was headed to the greenhouses with some of Harry's muggle books. As for Harry, he has occlumency lessons with Professor Snape."

"Oh, right. You know, sometimes I forget how far ahead he is." Tracey said that made Hermione nod in agreement.

o0o

Hogwarts

Potions Master's Office

November 23, 1991

"Good, very good; the rules seem to be more defined and absolute. Structures are solid and textured. You have come a long way Potter, and under very little time I might add." Professor Snape commented as he and Harry once more walked the streets of Harry's mindscape.

"Now, each person we encounter is a projection of a memory, correct?" His occlumency master asked.

"Yes Professor." Harry promptly replied.

"Impressive, quite an uncommon idea, very imaginative and easily defensible judging from the odd looks those muggle policemen are giving me as a foreign probe to your mind; I would assume they wield more than just muggle weaponry or perhaps a highly effective combination of sorts." Professor Snape mused.

"I don't think I'm obliged to share that information Professor, would you care to test it out?" Harry responded with a blank stare betraying no emotion.

Snape almost failed to suppress a shudder at another rather unpleasant realization he suddenly had of Lily's child. James Potter was a cunning schemer that would have made any Slytherin literally green with envy being one of the biggest prankster in his time, add to that Lily's equally brilliant mind and mean streak to behold if you caught her at a wrong time of the month; their offspring was destined to be a force to be reckoned with as evidenced by the child he'd taken in as a sort of like an apprentice.

"Considering who raised you, I think not Potter. As for my current instruction, keep doing as you have done and meditate. Come next year, we may start with the process of constructing your mental shields and redirection of a probe towards your mindscape. That will be all for now, keep in mind that this is a long and arduous process and will need much patience, a trait you never seem to lack in any case." Professor Snape instructed.

Harry nodded and said, "I'll keep that in mind sir," Both willingly exited Harry's mindscape, "I'll take my leave Professor, thank you for your time."

After Professor waved him off, Harry exited the Professor's office and after a quick tempus charm, promptly headed to the Great Hall for an early dinner.

o0o

Not long after Severus Snape dismissed Harry, his office's wards prompted him of the Headmaster's presence outside. "Can I help you with anything Headmaster?" Snape called out.

Dumbledore entered, "Ah Severus, I seem to be on time. I take it Harry's lessons went well?" the elder wizard said.

"As to be expected with Potter, Headmaster. And as for your request; even with my limited access, I have found no anomaly within the boy's mind, no foreign entities of any kind as well as any outside interference such as the things you stated. The boy's prodigious mind and talent is his own." Snape said cutting to the chase of the Headmaster's intentional visit.

Dumbledore sighed; Severus Snape never was one to beat around the bush when it came to James' and Lily's child. "Hmmm… I see. Very well, I thank you for having the task done Severus."

Snape nodded, "Might I inquire Headmaster, was your concern in connection with the Dark Lord and the boy?" he asked in an indifferent tone.

Dumbledore was taken aback for a quick moment before he schooled his expression into his usual calm demeanor. He shouldn't have been that surprised that the man before him deduced the connection with very little to go by. "Yes, it is indeed Severus. Through the years since Tom's demise, I have come upon the knowledge of how he remains still in this world. It is to my understanding that he came to the Potters that night with the intent of once again performing a ritual with young Harry's death as the last step. Perhaps I may have been mistaken."

Snape pondered the Headmaster's words but was distracted from his musings when the elder wizard said, "Alas, this will take some time to investigate further but for now, we have dinner to attend to." With that, Dumbledore left the Potions Master's office to leave the man to his thoughts.

o0o

Hogwarts, Gryffindor House

First Year Dormitories

December 7, 1991

Harry sat by the café he had in his mindscape. He had awoken at his usual ungodly hour but instead of taking to his daily wandering inside the castle, he added a new routine to his early morning as per instruction from his occlumency master Professor Snape. Tedious though it may seem to the undisciplined, Harry was raised to be anything but.

A nightly routine of meditating before bed and daily organizing of his mindscape every morning were both just another routine he had added and easily fell into.

A brief thirty minutes outside the waking world equaled roughly around four times the time inside his mindscape; which Harry spent diligently reviewing and organizing:

Final exams for the first term had concluded just the previous day and Christmas Holiday was upon the students of Hogwarts. It was originally planned that he would go back home for the holidays as he, Sirius, Remus and the Tonkses had spent in previous years with the occasional visits to Daphne's and Neville's family, or some Christmas ball they were invited into, most prominent of which were the Malfoys.

This year however, Sirius had called on his mirror just last night to tell him that he and Remus had to go to the United States for some very important business. Harry knew that neither Sirius nor Remus wouldn't put off a family holiday for anything; and the only thing important enough for that entailed to Moony's furry little problem.

Harry heartily laughed at his godfather's profuse apologies and assured Sirius that he was okay with it. He had offered to come along but accepted Sirius' explanation that the high risks of danger were unpredictable and at best details from their source were sketchy.

Harry understood his limits and sincerely assured Sirius once again that he's ok. Of course, he may have also given his own profuse reminders for them to be careful, which caused Sirius to reply an earnest "I think you meant to say that the other way around cub" followed by his godfather's barking laugh.

With that memory of his conversation with Sirius carefully filed away, Harry stood and decided to walk around the city he had designed as his mindscape. He joined the typical hassle and bustle his self-styled city-mindscape had.

Not long after Harry decided to walk around, he vaguely heard the alarming of his digital clock. Quite lucky that their individual four-poster bed were silenced once they've drawn their curtains, though that also attested to how loud Weasley can snore. It was very amusing to see his usually composed, collected and stoic friend Neville growl in annoyance and even more so when Neville approached Professor Flitwick for some advanced lessons on silencing charms.

Chuckling at the memory, Harry eased out of his mindscape, done for the day. He quickly went about his morning rituals and put on some not so winter-friendly clothing just for the purpose of practicing the heating charms they were taught as well as the piece of low level blue-flame conjuration Hermione found on one of his books from his slightly cramped mini trunk-library.

Once he was ready for the day, Harry went down to the common room where he found Hermione seated at her usual armchair by the fireplace possibly pouring over one of his lent books. He was about to greet her a good morning when both their attention were caught by someone stumbling by the common room entrance.

The pink-haired seventh year witch cursed under her breath as she stood up and was met by Harry as he greeted, "Well good morning to you too cousin, what brings you to Gryffindor tower?"

"Good, you're awake. I just thought I'd tell you, mum wrote and said both her and dad will be spending Christmas here with us since apparently Sirius and Remus will be off to an important business of some sort. I don't suppose you know anything about that do you?" Tonks responded as she walked towards the couch and plopped herself down the length of it which caused Harry to take a seat by the arm of Hermione's chair.

Harry and Tonks exchanged pleasantries with Hermione and went back to their conversation as Hermione went back to her reading.

"About your question, no, Sirius didn't tell me anything specific. Just that they were going to the U.S. for something important. My best bet would be that it has something to do with Remus' condition." Harry said with a significant glance to his cousin who nodded, indicating her understanding.

Tonks sighed, "Well I hope they have fun… I mean they always brought back some mental story or another after each of those trips so you never know." She said with a shrug.

Harry chuckled, "I suppose."

"That aside, who else are staying in the castle for break?"

"I know Neville won't. Zabini will be going home as well, Tracey will be staying and I guess I better talk to Daphne…" He was interrupted when the portrait hole opened and closed with a loud bang as Daphne entered.

As soon as Daphne got to where they were seated, she began pacing.

After a moment of her pacing, Harry and Hermione caught either of the pale-blonde's wrists and pulled her down to sit with Hermione on her comfortable armchair.

"What's up?" Harry asked.

"My sister Astoria, that's what." Daphne responded, glaring at the Gryffindor common room fire.

Harry chuckled which earned him a momentary glare from Daphne before her expression considerably softened. "What did little Tori do now?" he asked.

Daphne huffed and crossed her arms, eliciting a giggle from Hermione as it was rare to see the 'Slytherin Ice Princess' less than composed. "The little _munchkin_ apparently had it in her head to spend Christmas here in the castle, so now I am asked to stay at Hogwarts to wait for their arrival. How she convinced Mother and Father, I'll never know."

Daphne expected a frown or at the very least a look of disappointment but when Harry smiled and Tonks let out a childish whoop, though the pink-haired girl kept herself from falling off the couch she was lying on, Daphne was a bit confused at their reaction. "Am I missing something here?" she asked as she turned her head to the person she knew would answer her in detail, Hermione, who also had a grin on her face.

Hermione just shook her head and motioned towards Harry.

Daphne looked back at Harry with blank look he only knew too well. He rolled his eyes and chuckled, he said, "As of last night, I'm staying for Christmas as well since Sirius and Remus are off to another one of those 'important' businesses they randomly went to."

Glad that Harry would be staying as well, Daphne smiled and gently bumped her shoulder to his back.

The three of them shared a comfortable silence as Harry went to sit on the couch occupied by his cousin which caused Tonks to use his lap as a leg cushion since she was too comfortable laying down to sit up. Harry decided to forego his castle wandering for the day since in a few minutes; breakfast would be served in the Great Hall.

Hermione and Daphne remained seated at the comfortable armchair by the fire. Both girls discussed in hushed tones as it was quite early. Apparently, Hermione was reading or rather rereading her Wizarding customs book and Daphne was always happy to discuss the differences between both worlds as well as explain some points from the Wizarding community's point of view to which the young Gryffindor listened with rapt attention.

o0o

As early as it was and since it was the weekend after the end of first term exams, students have opted to sleeping in; though as a weekend in its own right; students would have most definitely slept in anyway.

There were some early risers however such as the three Gryffindor chasers as well as the Weasley twins and of course some duty bound Prefects who have trickled down from their dormitories. The lot of them had gotten used to the fact that the batch of first years this year was simply different and quite practical; and so a seventh-year Hufflepuff and a first year Slytherin relaxing by the Gryffindor common room fire with two of their very own Gryffindor first years was a common occurrence.

Not long of just lazing about the Gryffindor common room, Tonks suggested that they make their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Harry, Daphne and Hermione agreed; they were about to head out when Neville groggily walked down from the dormitories.

"I take it you didn't have much sleep?" Harry asked foregoing morning pleasantries since Neville clearly doesn't have a very good morning.

Neville nodded and growled in annoyance, "I fell asleep before the trio came back, so I wasn't able to cast the silencing charm on him until later around two in the morning." He yawned and continued, "I wonder how many points those three lost us this time?" Neville nonchalantly mused.

Harry chuckled and shook his head, "No idea, but it can't be over a hundred points or so."

The girls giggled and Neville snorted in amusement before he groaned in realization; there goes the points they managed to gain in classes. Not that they cared much about the house cup, but having points awarded to right answers for questions directed your way felt good until you realize that your house was actually playing catch up as it is.

As they walked to the Great Hall, Hermione turned to Harry and asked, "How late were they this time?"

"I'm not quite sure, but it was probably past curfew since that was about the same time I finished my meditation."

Tonks reached out and ruffled her cousin's already messy hair, "That's very diligent of you cousin." she said while Harry desperately tried to stave off her unhelpful ministrations, "Though judging from these two's runic translations, nice work by the girls. Anyway, from Daphne's and Hermione's translations, I'm quite surprised those three weren't found in pieces by now."

Hermione had a horrified look, but Daphne just smirked and said, "They can thank Harry for that."

"Oh? Do tell dear cousin." Tonks teased.

Harry shrugged, "After the girls showed me the translations they worked on, I went to Professor Snape who in turn brought it up with the Headmaster. My guess is, the Professor must have taken measures to divert Weasley and his friends from the third-floor corridor." He paused for a moment, "There's an identical corridor just on the fourth floor, and it wouldn't take much but a mild confundus to make them think it was the very same corridor."

"Why not go to Professor McGonagall Harry?" Hermione curiously asked.

Harry thought it out for a moment and answered, "Aside from Professor McGonagall's wicked temper when it comes to those three, I would say, the best they could have gotten were deducted points which wouldn't really help our cause for the house cup; not that I care much mind you; and had our Head of House given them detentions, that would have encouraged them further that they're on to something."

Hermione's eyes lit up at Harry's reasoning, "Oh! I see. Yes, that would have been counterproductive wouldn't it?" She then scrunched up her nose in thought, "You know, sometimes I wonder why you're in Gryffindor and not Ravenclaw or Slytherin."

Daphne gently poked the bushy-haired girl beside her, "Speak for yourself miss curiosity…" she said and Hermione promptly blushed.

Meanwhile Tonks interjected, "Well I think that was very _noble _of you future _Lord Harry James Potter-Black_."

Harry took the teasing tone in a stride and nodded sagely, he then responded eerily, "Yes… yes… that was indeed very noble… was it not Miss Nymphadora Tonks?"

Hermione gasped at the mention of the unmentionable name while Neville choked on the very air he just breathed in and Daphne momentarily lost her cool whilst Harry quickened his pace as he ghosted through the remaining distance between them and the Great Hall.

Tonks made for a grab at her cousin but promptly tripped on her own two feet. She quickly stood and straightened her clothes and turned to the remaining first years, she said, "Not a word…"

Hermione vigorously nodded as well as Neville while Daphne did a zipping motion on her lips.

The pink-haired witch nodded sternly but with a ghost of a smirk playing on her expression. Tonks walked ahead and led the remaining three to follow Harry into the Great Hall; all the while, internally sighing in relief as she could always count on the Yuletide season to bring out that little bit of youthful spirit that her cousin should have.

o0o

Tonks, Hermione, Daphne and Neville caught up with Harry in the Great Hall and joined him at the Gryffindor table for breakfast.

As expected, there were barely any students awake for an early breakfast on a weekend. As they were eating, Harry's mirror audibly vibrated in the middle of such comfortable silence. The emerald-eyed boy brought out his mirror and answered his godfather's call.

Harry was greeted with Sirius' grinning face and a rather under the weather Remus on the back ground, "Good morning Padfoot, and Moony, you don't look too good."

Sirius guffawed and tilted the mirror towards Remus as the latter answered, "Jetlag Cub, combined with being trapped inside a metal death trap while your idiotic godfather here convinced the muggleborn pilots to let him take the wheel… I should have brought my heavy duty restraints… hang on…" Remus turned and ran towards the nearest cubicle. Apparently, the two were in a restroom, most probably on the magical side of the airport although their mirrors did have the necessary notice-me-not charms on them for muggles.

Harry directed a disappointed gaze at his godfather for a moment before he chuckled and caused Sirius to heartily laugh along. "Anyway, I must have forgotten to mention. Wizarding Britain is officially moving into the twentieth century; rather late but it's a start. Oh and Arthur Weasley, you remember him, and his entire department is facing a huge and certainly favorable change; all thanks to the results you and a few others passed after testing the magically upgraded muggle devices."

Sirius could almost see the gears in his godson's head turn as Harry contemplated the relevance of that information. Sirius proceeded, "Anyway, I thought you should know. I have to get going Cub, our contact's here."

Harry nodded, "oh, of course. Take care you two."

"What was that about?" Tonks asked after Harry returned his mirror back in his pocket.

"Just something Sirius forgot to mention about the new bill."

Tonks nodded since she had helped Harry test out the television about a month back. It wasn't after the third television exploded in their magically shielded faces that they realized that Hogwarts was just too saturated with magical energy that the Wizarding home version they were testing couldn't take that much magical energy. Lucky that wasn't the case with the smaller devices since she found out that Harry was sleeping with one near his headboard.

As they were finishing breakfast, other students started coming down for breakfast; some followed their example and sat with friends in other houses. It was then that the rest of the Gryffindor first years had joined them in the Great Hall.

Lavender and Parvati had arrived first and after a quick greeting to Hermione, the two headed for the Ravenclaw table to join Parvati's twin Padma for breakfast.

Soon after, the remaining three first year Gryffindor boys came in for breakfast. Although Ron was always skeptical about Harry and by extension Harry's friends' nonparticipation in house rivalries, the youngest Weasley had to admit that being on their good side was a lot better than otherwise.

"Blimey mate! Aren't you cold in that outfit?" Ron asked as he approached and noticed Harry's choice of clothing.

Harry looked towards Ron from his conversation with Daphne and Hermione about getting some spell work practice as a way to spend the day. "Heating Charms Weasley; we still have practical exams for the next week before break." Harry casually informed.

Ron paled at that revelation; he thought he had survived the end of first term exams. The redhead chose the best way to distract himself, he started eating.

When Ron started eating, Harry went back to the discussion. Tonks had chimed in that she would accompany them seeing that there wasn't anything better to do since NEWT students had a different pace in their studies than the younger years.

As they finalized their plan for the day, Professor McGonagall walked down from the head table and headed for their general direction and stopped by their group. "Ms. Granger, if you're done with breakfast, kindly follow me, there are matters I wish to discuss with you."

Hermione looked up and promptly schooled her features, she politely acknowledged, "Yes Professor."

With a nod to the others, she stood and followed the Professor to her office.

o0o

Hermione followed Professor McGonagall into the stern Professor's office just beyond their transfigurations classroom. She was genuinely curious as to what her stern Head of House wished to discuss. Before Hogwarts, she would have aimlessly fretted over some mistakes she made on an exam or some theories she could have rephrased, but not this time. Hermione knew she did great on the end of first term exams.

The Professor sat behind her desk and offered Hermione to take a seat as well. As Hermione sat, she had promptly quelled her desire to ask the Professor outright what she wanted to discuss and simply waited for Professor McGonagall so start.

Professor McGonagall considered one her brightest student for a brief moment. "Pertaining to the unfortunate events last Halloween, we, meaning I as your Head of House and the Headmaster have been corresponding with your parents, Ms. Granger." The Professor started.

Hermione drew in a quick intake of breath at that. She knew she had severely underplayed the events of the troll incident in the letter she had sent to her parents. They've responded quickly after but to her great relief, her parents' response were that they were glad she was okay, proud of her for doing great in school even if everything was all new and quite exciting and that she should take care of herself. Now Hermione partly understood why that was her parents' response.

The first year Gryffindor held on to her calm demeanor as there wasn't a reason to worry, not yet anyway.

With just moments pause, Professor McGonagall continued, "They have brought to our attention the letter you had sent them the morning after your and Mr. Potter's unfortunate run in with the troll Ms. Granger, and while I may understand your reason for underplaying the events that occurred; a white lie is still a lie." The usually stern Professor softened by a fraction as she saw the girl before her fidget slightly on her seat.

"Now what's done is done. Your parents and I have been discussing the matter through owl post for the past month or so and they have come up with the best way to handle the matter with your best interest at heart."

Hermione simply nodded, not trusting her voice not to crack as she dreaded to know what her parents had decided on.

"As per your parents' request, you and your parents, Ms. Granger, will be spending the holidays here until the day before second term for the school year starts. I believe your parents will spend their time here to determine whether they should pull you out or let you stay at Hogwarts." Professor McGonagall said.

Hermione winced at the thought of the possibility that her parents might pull her out of Hogwarts, but then, there's also the chance that they might let her stay.

Hermione took a calming breath, "Professor? If my parents decide to pull me out of Hogwarts, what are my options?" she asked.

The Professor was a tad bit taken aback by the question; any other twelve year old girl, particularly one of her other Gryffindors, would have been senselessly fretting and asking questions on how to avoid the matter all together; but Hermione has the inquisitiveness more befitting a Ravenclaw.

Professor McGonagall took a moment to gather her thoughts and answered her student's question, "Should your parents deem it fitting to pull you out of Hogwarts for your well-being and safety, as your Head of House and by extension, your magical guardian. I believe arrangements for a school transfer will be in order, Hogwarts after all, isn't the only school for witchcraft and wizardry in the Wizarding world."

Hermione was admittedly relieved at that and she knew just what school to look into, though if she could help it, she'd rather not leave.

Professor McGonagall caught the look of relief that the young girl before her had for moment after she had said the first of her options, though she dreaded what she had to say next, "However Ms. Granger, should your parents decide to pull out of the Wizarding world all together…" the Professor paused to take a breath.

"I'm sorry to say but there are just two options you and your family can choose from. In accordance to the Wizarding world's Statute of Secrecy; you either have your magical core bound until you are of your muggle majority… or a complete memory reconstruction of your time as a student here at Hogwarts and near permanent magical core binding. Sad to say, but in most cases, they choose the latter." Professor McGonagall ended with a sad note.

Hermione's head swam with the implications should her parents decide that magical world was too dangerous for their only child. The only consolation she had was that Professor McGonagall thought of her as mature enough to handle the reality of what would happen and oddly enough, as worried as she was, she kept her calm as there really wasn't a thing she could do at the moment.

At least now, she could stay in the castle for the holidays as well and couldn't wait to introduce her friends that she had been writing about. Hermione took a quick moment to gather her thoughts and said, "I understand Professor. How will my mum and dad be getting here Professor?"

"Your parents will be taking the Hogwarts express in platform nine and three-quarters Ms. Granger and yes; you will be allowed to meet them in Hogsmeade station. I believe quite a few families decided to spend their holidays here in the castle this year. I assume that you would be fine going with Ms. Tonks to the station come next weekend." The professor said.

Hermione nodded, "Yes Professor."

Professor McGonagall was relieved that her impromptu meeting had gone a lot better than she had previously anticipated. "Very well, that is all Ms. Granger. You may go."

Hermione made to stand before she remembered something and asked the Professor, "Uhmm, Professor?" Professor McGonagall responded with a nod, "If it isn't too much to ask, would it possible for us to practice our spell work in your classroom for next week's practical."

"I suppose that would be fine Ms. Granger. Say, after lunch." The Professor responded.

Hermione smiled and nodded, "Thank you Professor." With that said, she headed out of Professor McGonagall's office.

o0o

Hogsmeade Station

December 14, 1991

When Hermione found the others after her meeting with Professor McGonagall, her friends inquired what the Professor wanted to talk about. She told them of her and the Professor's conversation and instead of getting depressed about the possibility of her being pulled out of school, Tonks made everyone more excited about the fact that she'd now be staying at the castle as well for the holidays.

Now a week after the Hogwarts students finished their practical exams they found themselves in Hogsmeade station awaiting the train to arrive at exactly ten in the morning and will then travel back to King's Cross station at eleven.

Now, it was no longer uncommon for some of the more prominent families to arrange for a Christmas or any other Holiday, save for summer of course, with their children in the castle. Since first and foremost, Hogwarts was a castle before the founders used it as a school.

It was at this scene that Hermione, along with Daphne, Tracey and Tonks, found themselves in as they waited with their fellow students for the train to arrive. Harry begged off going to the station with them for some holiday preparations he needed to instruct Missy to do.

During their discussions of Wizarding customs, Hermione and Daphne had skimmed over some of the more powerful and influential, not to mention rich families having house-elves for servants. To Hermione, it was simple to grasp really, sentient humanoid in form small beings who absolutely loved to work and in exchange got paid with the family's magic which were tied to their life, house-elves needed a family to bond with to live, simple as that.

Hermione was brought out of her musing when she heard the distant, yet close, whistle of the Hogwarts Express as the train neared the station. She looked up from where she was seated and saw Neville straightening his clothes and readying his trunk. Neville seemed excited to be going home for the holidays and Hermione understood why when she heard that the Weasley children will be staying in the castle for Christmas.

It wasn't long until the train neared the station and slowed to a stop. Parents exited with their baggage left for castle elves to collectively 'pop' over to the castle. Needless to say that said adults could have gotten to the Wizarding village and ultimately the school using more efficient ways of travel but it was decided that if they wanted to be fully accommodated by the current Headmaster that they at least follow through the old traditions.

Not that many complained when nostalgia settled at the first step into the very same train they took back in their youth.

Hermione felt Daphne stood beside her, "I think that's Mother and Father over there by the first car of the train. See you back at the castle later, knowing my sister, she'd want to look at the shops around the village first." Daphne said to Hermione, Tracey and Tonks before walking off grumbling about 'the annoying little munchkin'.

Hermione giggled at that; she then went back to trying if she can spot her parents through the early group of students who wanted to get on the train as soon as they can and probably get back to sleep.

Not long after Daphne went to her parents and sister, Tracey excused herself as well when she spotted her parents.

"I believe that's your mother over there Hermione." Tonks pointed at the direction near the rear end of the train.

Indeed it was her mum and dad talking to another couple. The woman who was talking to her mum bore a striking resemblance to Tonks. Hermione turned to the older girl and asked, "Is that…?"

Tonks nodded, knowing what Hermione was about to ask, "Yeah, that's mum and dad talking with yours." Tonks then led them towards their parents.

As both students neared their parents, both mothers waved at their respective daughter and closed their gap as the fathers trailed behind. Hermione hugged her mother; she hadn't realized how much she missed them until just then as she clung to her mum.

After her mother, Hermione then did the same to her father as she listened in on her mum and Tonks' mother conversation.

"Emma, I take it this is your brilliant little girl Hermione?" Andromeda Tonks asked to her newly acquired muggle acquaintance.

Emmaline Granger smiled and nodded, she introduced her daughter, "Hermione, this is Andromeda Tonks and her husband Ted Tonks. They helped us get onto the mixed-numbered platform when your father and I were arguing about running head-on into a brick wall." She said with a mock glare towards her husband that amused their daughter.

Hermione exchanged proper pleasantries with Tonks' mother.

"It seems you are already friends with my daughter, Hermione; oh and do call me Andy." Andromeda Tonks started, she paused and looked at her daughter, "Now, I wonder if Nymphadora here is the cause of why the Headmaster has invited your parents for the holidays when you could be spending such an occasion as a family." Her voice swam with amusement when she called her daughter by her given name and the younger girl almost failed to suppress a gasp.

Andromeda surprisingly held her expression as she proceeded to introduce her daughter, "Emma, Dan, this is the headache of a daughter I was telling you about, Nymphadora." Her lips twitched when her daughter half whimpered half growled.

Tonks exchanged pleasantries with Hermione's parents and proceeded to suggest their next course of action as she really didn't want to present more opportunities for her mother to embarrass her. "So! What say we head to the castle as it's getting chilly out here and I'm sure the others must be getting back as well? C'mon Hermione." With that she gently grabbed Hermione, which the younger girl understood immediately and walked with her pseudo big sister.

Both sets of parents stared with amusement at their girls. Emma and Dan were simply glad that their daughter now acted her age, yet seemingly mature and confident. Andy and Ted were quite amused at how their daughter was perceived, for once, as the big sister since even with her cousin Harry, Nymphadora was the fun loving immature one.

Andy and Emma followed their daughters while the husbands shrugged while they shook their head in amusement as they went to follow as well.

o0o

The Granger and Tonks family arrived by Hogwarts' gates after a short relaxing ride on the horseless carriages. They then walked up the short path towards the castle and into the entrance hall where they were greeted by the Headmaster and the Gryffindor Head of House.

Tonks' family was ushered in by Professor Sprout as she is her Head of House. By then, there were fewer students in the castle as it was nearing lunch and most have gone home for the holidays.

"Ah, Mr. and Mrs. Granger I presume." The Headmaster greeted with a grandfatherly smile. "Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

Dan held out his hand, "Quite a school you have here Headmaster Dumbledore. We appreciate your invitation for the holidays. My wife and I have been quite worried about our only daughter going so far away for school."

"Yes, I would imagine so." Dumbledore responded with an empathetic expression. "Now, shall we proceed with the meeting? Best get it out of the way so that you may enjoy your stay in the castle for the holidays with young Ms. Granger."

"Yes, of course. Best get it out of the way… Emma?" Dan looked back to where his wife and daughter were with the Deputy Headmistress.

Emma nodded and turned to address her daughter, "Now we'll be back sweetie, your Headmaster will just show us something that we've requested to see. I'm not sure how, but it will be about the real events that occurred in Halloween." She fixed Hermione with a stern look, much too reminiscent of her transfigurations Professor.

Hermione looked down and chewed on her bottom lip, "Sorry mum… Am I… Am I in trouble?"

Emma's lips twitched slightly into a smile, "Why don't I get back to you on that young lady. Now, how about you spend some time with your friends while your daddy and I go with Professor McGonagall and your Headmaster." She genuinely smiled when sent Hermione off to look for her friends. She'd never been able to do that until just now since her baby girl had never had close friends and preferred the company of either them or her books.

After she watched her daughter walk towards two ornate looking large doors that seemed to open into a huge hall of some sort, Emma then turned to her husband as the Headmaster and Professor led them to through the castle.

As confusing as the castle was with all the similar looking corridors, series of turns and apparently moving staircases; what highlighted the impromptu tour through the castle towards the Headmaster's office was the sight of ghosts and moving, talking paintings; not to mention the short conversation the Headmaster and his Deputy Headmistress had when Emma gasped at being caught off guard at seeing a ghost for the first time.

McGonagall looked at Dumbledore with a raised eyebrow, "I didn't think you'd adjust the wards for Mr. and Mrs. Grangers full benefit Headmaster."

"Alas, I was under the impression that Mr. and Mrs. Granger would have wanted to see for themselves their daughter's world the way young Ms. Granger saw it." Dumbledore said and turned to the Grangers to consider their opinion.

Emma smiled and said, "We appreciate the gesture Headmaster. We just didn't expect to see, well ghosts and paintings of people running from canvas to canvas." She shrugged her shoulders as to casually brush off the matter.

"Very good. Now shall we head up to my office?" Dumbledore gestured up an ascending spiral staircase. The Grangers were quite distracted since they missed that one or that fact that their walk towards the Headmasters office should have been tiring climbing seven floors as it is had they not been that distracted by such a, well, magical castle.

As the Headmaster and Professor McGonagall followed by the Grangers entered the Headmaster's office, they found a smartly dressed in muggle clothing young man inside, seated on a bookshelf-ladder's comfortable looking mid-step with an old-looking tome held open in both hands.

"Ah, Harry my boy; glad you could make it on such short notice." Dumbledore started.

Harry looked up from the tome and bowed his head slightly in greeting at the four adults. "Of course Headmaster, one would tend to answer to a summons when the message appears in a swirl or flame." He said and observed as the wizened wizard's eyes twinkled in amusement at his words.

Dumbledore beamed a grandfatherly smile and gestured to the Grangers, "May I introduce Mr. and Mrs. Granger, young Ms. Granger's parents."

Harry nodded as he levitated the tome back in its place in the book shelf and walked down to greet Hermione's parents. "Pleasure to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Granger, my name's Harry Potter." He introduced himself, and then he turned back to the Headmaster after the Grangers returned the gesture and greeting.

"Where do I deposit the memory Headmaster?" Harry asked.

"In this pensieve if you will Harry." Dumbledore responded as he opened a cabinet behind his personal desk.

Harry nodded as he walked towards the pensieve. Without warning or any indication of his next move, Harry fluidly brought out his Ebony wand from his right wand holster, pointed it at his temple and drew out the same copy of the memory he gave his godfather after the events last Halloween.

The grangers watched in fascination as the young man, probably the very same their daughter has been writing to them about since school started casually performed magic in front of them and in what seemed to be under the Headmaster's orders.

Before they could ask, Harry spoke again, "Will that be all Headmaster? Do you need me to stay?" he politely asked.

Dumbledore smiled, "That will be all Harry and I suppose you may take your leave."

Harry bowed slightly at the Headmaster and his Head of House then turned to the Grangers, "Mr. and Mrs. Granger," he said with a bow of respect as well and took his leave.

The Grangers took a quick moment to compose then went to address the matter of their meeting, "If you don't mind us asking Headmaster, how are you going to show us the Halloween incident involving our daughter?" Emma asked.

Dumbledore nodded, "I see that young Ms. Granger's inquisitiveness and brilliance took after not just one but the both of you," he started with a grandfatherly smile, "As for your question Mrs. Granger, that was actually the purpose of Mr. Potter's presence just now. I needed him to provide the memory of the Halloween incident's event as he was there with your daughter that night."

Dan was about to ask the most obvious question when the Headmaster calmly and politely cut him off, "I believe it would be best if we put off any judgments in the matter until after we have seen what really transpired. Now, shall we?" Dumbledore said and gestured to come closer to the glowing bowl of some kind where they had seen Harry place the long silvery strand that he took from his head.

As the four adults stood encircling the runic glowing bowl that was the pensieve, the Headmaster said a few instructions, "Now, it is quite simple, all we have to do is to lean in until we are inside the memory. There will be a slight sensation of falling but that is to be expected and assuredly nothing to worry about and lastly, I want all to remember that what we will be witnessing is but a memory so nothing can hurt you. Now, Mr. and Mrs. Granger, if you please follow my example." With that last note, the Headmaster leaned in fell into the pensieve.

The Grangers rather comically looked at each other for but a brief moment, they shrugged and followed suit as Professor McGonagall brought up the rear as now all four delved into the memory.

o0o

About half an hour later, the Headmaster, the Grangers and Professor McGonagall exited the pensieve with varying expressions and opinions about what they had witnessed.

For the Gryffindor Head of House, she absolutely brimmed with pride albeit on the inside. Ever since the start of first term for the young Potter scion, Minerva had conceded on the opinions of Severus and Filius that Harry showed more traits belonging in both Slytherin and Ravenclaw rather her own. At least, from what she had witnessed, the boy presented true Gryffindor selflessness and courage, granted he was also frighteningly calculating and precise when he dispatched the obviously controlled troll.

On the Headmaster's part, he simply pondered the boy's words the last they talked. Nothing short of compete and permanent incapacitation would have stopped the troll's rampage; the glazed over eyes of the creature said so much to him than any explanation or theory he himself could have came up with. Never mind that young Mr. Potter knew spells quite advanced for his age, when Tom Riddle managed to slip passed Hogwarts' fully activated wards which gave him last minute warnings, was a more pressing concern that needed attention.

All his staff were present during the attack save for Sybill Trelawney whom he had absolutely no reason to suspect since the limited far-sight seer had a personal Hogwarts elf that took care of her needs but directly answered to him; one can never know when a prophecy might pop up and though that branch of magic was admittedly unreliable, he needed someone to watch her nonetheless as she has the tendency to be less than sober whenever the Headmaster was away and simply couldn't have that in his institution of learning.

As for the Grangers, scores of unrelated realizations occurred to them from what they had witnessed. Their daughter opened up to the young man they met when the young girl herself never did to them. Of course, as parents, they've suspected Hermione's loneliness at never having friends from her own peers but as instincts dictated, they showered their daughter with their undivided attention and affection. No child would have contested that and they were relieved to know that their Hermione loved them for that but really; anyone would admit that sometimes, you needed friends of your own age or mindset from time to time.

Second, the magical world was more dangerous than they had originally thought albeit a whole lot more enchanting as well. They didn't just need a second opinion on this, to appease their warring concerns, they probably needed a third, fourth, fifth, maybe even more different perspective opinion and even then, the safety of their only child would most certainly win out.

What they needed was time to think things through, and thankfully they had that no matter how limited it was. The Grangers resolved to observe the world that had entranced their daughter and talk things through with her when the time comes for them to make their decision. A huge factor obviously went to Hermione's friends and that's where they will start.

With that thought, Harry Potter was the first name that came to both Grangers minds. For Dan, what the boy did to his daughter's would be attacker factored close what he would have done, a shame the blasted troll only suffered the excruciating pain of a shattered arm before the young man was forced to permanently put it out of commission.

As for Emma, she was simply astounded as to how one so young would have had such resolve in the face of such imminent and most certainly life threatening danger. Granted, the two could have had that conversation in far less suggestive places but she understood that anyone could have gotten engrossed in a deep conversation and simply have time slip by unnoticed.

A long moment's restrained silence was shared by the four adults in the Headmaster's office. It was Emma who broke the prolonged silence, "I'm sure you don't mind, but we would like to go ahead and be with our daughter Headmaster."

"Not at all," Dumbledore said in an understanding tone.

"If you would follow me Mr. and Mrs. Granger," McGonagall said in follow up for the Headmaster as she stood.

"Should you like to discuss your concerns regarding matters, please do not hesitate to approach me or any of the staff at anytime Mr. and Mrs. Granger." With these parting words from the Headmaster, the Grangers took their leave as they Professor McGonagall led them back to the Great Hall.

o0o

Hermione sat in the Gryffindor table with Harry, Tonks and Tonks' family for lunch. When Harry came in earlier, he told her that he had just gone to see the Headmaster, Professor McGonagall and met her parents as well to provide the memory of the events on Halloween. Hermione nodded in understanding, and then patiently waited for her parents to return from the Headmaster's office as she thought about how her mum and dad would broach the matter later.

They haven't been in the Great Hall long when Daphne, along with her family entered. As soon as the Greengrass family had entered, the most noticeable was Daphne's younger sister Astoria who shot passed her and rather comically stopped before the house tables as she swept each table with her sight starting with Slytherin table.

When the adorable nine year old brown-haired witch found her mark on the Gryffindor table, a rather long string of "Harry-Harry-Harry-Harry-Harry" was heard as she ran towards said boy.

Beside Hermione, Harry chuckled and stood to meet Daphne's younger sister, "Little Tori, how was the train ride?" he asked after he caught Astoria when the little girl leapt for an embrace.

Astoria snuggled into his shoulder in response and drowsily replied, "Tiring… and sleepy… we had to leave so early…"

As Daphne's younger sister responded, Harry caught Daphne roll her eyes and the amused looks of her parents. He shrugged gently at Daphne's parents indicating he couldn't greet them properly at the moment and both parents nodded as went to take their seats on the Gryffindor table, a first for both adult apparently.

Harry sat back down with the seemingly asleep Tori on his lap. Hermione turned to Daphne as the blonde sat beside her, "Oh sure, now she says she's sleepy when not just long ago she was running around Hogsmeade. Annoying little munchkin…" Daphne conspiratorially said to Hermione, which caused the latter to giggle.

It was on this setting when Professor McGonagall entered with Hermione's parents. Hermione excused herself and met her parents and the Professor halfway to suggest if they could have lunch in the Gryffindor common room or the quarters that was assigned to her mum and dad. The Professor agreed on the latter and led the Granger family to one of the quarters usually assigned on the fifth floor.

o0o

Hogwarts Fifth Floor

The Grangers' appointed castle quarters

December 25, 1991

Hermione sat by close replica of the Gryffindor common room fire of her parents' appointed castle quarters. She has taken to sleeping the extra bedroom that their quarters had since the start of the holidays upon knowing that she'd be alone in the first year girls' dormitory.

Hermione started looking through her Christmas presents earlier when she saw one sent by someone she hasn't met; though Harry and Neville had mentioned her a couple of times, Neville more so than Harry, she found it quite surprising that one Luna Lovegood has sent her a present.

Though not quite alarming and obviously, judging by what both boys had told her about the one particular odd friend, there wasn't a risk of danger; Hermione opened the present first and was immediately enthralled by the fictional book. She didn't expect to find the magical world's counterpart of Hansel and Gretel.

From what she's read so far, including the few important words of the author himself as well as some of said author's dedications, the story was mostly a work of fiction, a rather good one at that, but that doesn't shy it away from the fact that it was interestingly heavily dosed with history. Now, there was a way to teach the subject whilst it retained one's attention.

Now, what probably was an after effect of getting used to Harry's near ghostly silence in the morning not to mention unbelievable grace both him and Daphne had not to mention Neville though barring Tonks from that category, Hermione stood from her seat and met her mum she got out of the bedroom to greet her.

"Good Morning mum, Happy Christmas!" she greeted.

"Goodness Hermione Jean Granger, stop doing that!" Emma mock scolded in a slightly startled manner.

Now Hermione knew how Harry felt every time their year mates, her included, felt when they tell him that. She innocently inclined her head to one side, "Stop doing what?" she asked.

Emma bent down and planted a kiss on her daughter's forehead and said, "Never mind, good morning and Happy Christmas to you too dear. I see you've started on your presents."

Hermione blushed at being caught, "Just the one, it's fun to read."

Emma walked towards her daughter's chair by the fire and turned over the book for the title, she raised an eyebrow, "Witch hunters?"

Hermione smiled and nodded, "Most of it is fictional but the History is there." She said as she sat with her mum.

Just then, Hermione's father came out of the bedroom as well, having finished his own morning rituals, "Good morning ladies," Dan greeted, "Oh, and Happy Christmas, now what's the agenda for the day?"

"Breakfast!" Hermione excitedly declared as she went ahead towards the portrait hole.

Both parents chuckled at their daughter's enthusiasm. They realized, this was actually the first Christmas they spent away from family and how much happier Hermione seemed to be.

Emma and Dan caught up with Hermione and the three proceeded to head to the Great Hall for breakfast.

o0o

As soon as the Granger entered the Great Hall, they immediately noticed something was amiss. Hermione more so than her parents noticed the perfect attendance of the four Weasley children; normally it would just be the twins either setting up for a prank of planning one; with Percy, the Prefect usually comes in on time.

"Hmmm… Looks like Christmas have a rather interesting effect on that classmate of yours Hermione." Dan mused as the three of them walked towards the Tonks and her family.

They weren't bothered much by the setting as since the official start of the holidays, the Headmaster had arranged it to only be a single long table in the Hall. There weren't that much students who stayed and those who did; only a few had invited their families over while some seemed to be trying to be independent.

"Aside from waking up earlier, that Weasley kid seems to be trying to devour more food than usual. I still find it hard to believe he hasn't got a few pets swimming around that stomach of his." Dan again mused while both his wife and daughter pointedly ignored the subject of his medical scrutiny.

He may not have firsthand knowledge on pediatrics as he is a dentist whilst Emma dealt more on orthodontics but given an overview of the subject, he just had to wonder how the redhead seemed to be an anomaly even amongst his peers in food consumption.

When they were seated and Hermione's parents started on their breakfast as she was filling her own plate, she and Daphne exchanged holiday greetings when the blonde sat across her and she then asked, "Where's Harry, he doesn't sleep in during Christmas does he? Because that would explain terribly of Ronald's early attendance,"

Daphne spared a quick glance at the redhead and as expected frowned at said redhead's table manners, "Hardly… The little squirt wanted a 'Harry' teddy bear the night before Christmas, and of course you know how Harry can't refuse that munchkin's little whims…" Daphne said with a touch hint of annoyance.

Hermione giggled at the new name Daphne came up with for her younger sister, "So where are they then? Still opening presents?"

"No… Playing actually… Harry received a really useful gift from the _French Tart…_ I mean, from his one particular French friend,"

If Hermione read Daphne correctly, she would say that the pale-blonde wasn't very fond of this one particular French friend of Harry's and she actually had a touch hint of idea as to who it was. "Oh? What is it?" she excitedly asked.

Harry who had just arrived in the Great Hall with Astoria and her parents sat beside Hermione just as she had asked, "Want to try it out Hermione?" he asked in response.

Hermione turned to Harry and immediately saw what he meant. The emerald-eyed boy now wore rimless glasses with runic etching along the length of its temples. She smiled and held out her hand, "May I?"

Harry handed the glasses to Hermione. After she put it on, she's immediately enthralled by the sight as everyone she saw glowed in their aura. What was more amazing was when she turned to her parents and saw them glow the same aura as the castle as they seemed to be tied to the castle wards.

"Amazing," Hermione said as she handed the glasses back to Harry who placed it inside his chest pocket.

Harry nodded in agreement, "Not your standard optometry glasses but seeing auras has its uses. Cures boredom at the very least…" he said as he discretely gestured to Daphne's little sister Astoria who was sitting beside him with her plate of food barely touched.

Harry handed the little girl the glasses and she visibly cheered and proceeded to eat whilst looking at the residue magical auras around the food when it was brought up from the kitchens by the elves.

Hermione giggled at the little girl's reaction while Daphne rolled her eyes at her sister's antics.

Meanwhile, both Emma and Dan observed the play by play as their daughter interacted with her friends as they've been discretely doing since the start of the holidays. They may have been disappointed at how Hermione lied or as she put it, slightly downplayed the events, but both Granger parents could see why their daughter did what she did.

For the first time since, they saw Hermione act her age but it was hard to make the decision when the world that made her happy was also filled with unfathomable dangers from their point of view.

o0o

After breakfast, Christmas day was a whirlwind of happy and amusing events for both Emmaline and Daniel Granger. Another one of their daughter's close friends, Tracey Davis, excitedly took Hermione back to their quarters, with the rest of her friends trailing behind, to open the rest of her presents.

The excitable auburn-haired girl's reason for rushing with the holiday-opening-of-presents-tradition was that she had arranged a snowball fight on the grounds since it was a surprisingly fair day on the snow laden Scottish highlands.

The remaining students seemed in the mood to participate as they were evenly grouped in two. Hermione and her friends were grouped together for rather obvious reason whilst the other group heavily consisted of flaming redheads. Some older students simply joined in for fun whilst seemed to join for some rivalry settlement.

The entire castle it seemed received the news fairly quickly with the help of the talking, moving portraits. The parents obviously came to watch their children be their age whilst the Professors as well as the Headmaster came to facilitate.

Emma and Dan were quite confused at first as to why the Professors needed to facilitate though they didn't voice out their concern and simply joined Andromeda along with both Greengrass and Davis parents since they had taken a liking to the parents of their daughter's friends.

It became apparent to them the need of the Professors to facilitate when the older members of each 'team' began magically erecting snow castle-like walls as snowballs formed either magically by the older students or by hand younger students.

As soon as the preparations were done, the 'battle' that ensued could only be described as epic. Well, in the both Granger parents' opinion that is, but they were able to keep their reactions on level of how the other parents reacted.

Seeing their daughter Hermione magically fling snowballs without her wand alongside her friends Daphne and Tracey while Harry handled keeping up with their 'reload' of snowballs, certainly made both Grangers watch in awe.

It certainly was entertaining to watch the kids dramatically made battle though the youngest redhead seemed to have gotten a little more into the game than necessary, at least until their daughter's trio peppered his face full of powder.

After a rather anticlimactic ending to their game where the Headmaster announced that lunch would be served soon which caused the youngest Weasley to barrel through their well kept snow castle-like walls and headed into the castle, that automatically ended their game with his team's loss; though there weren't any rules in the first place; just young witches and wizards enjoying a day out in the snow while they magically threw snowballs at each other behind snow walls.

The look of childlike happiness Emma and Dan saw on Hermione's face was yet another reason to the long list of reasons as to why they have to allow their daughter to stay in Hogwarts. They truly want their daughter to stay the way she is at the moment, happy, but the dangers that they saw as well as the location of the school itself was really making the decision of going against their parental instinct to keep their child safe.

o0o

Headmaster's Office

December 25, 1991

Later that day, after an enjoyable Christmas dinner in the Great Hall with the students and their families, Albus Dumbledore adjourned into his office where he was certain an old friend would be waiting for him.

Sure enough, as the Headmaster entered his office, the wizened wizard was greeted with the sight of his former alchemical mentor, colleague and oldest friend Nicholas Flamel just exiting his pensieve.

"Ah, Albus lad, there you are." Nicholas greeted as his former apprentice entered the office. "I believe a pleasant holiday is in order. Oh and I hope you don't mind, Noctis and I invited ourselves in your office." he added as he gestured to his own raven colored phoenix, 'Noctis', currently sharing Fawkes' perch.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled with mirth and amusement at his oldest friend. With the alchemist currently on his six hundred and sixty-fifth year of age, his former mentor's physical appearance certainly belied his age and he merely looked that of a man on his late thirties to his early forties. It would certainly be amusing to see the younger looking man interact with the wizened Headmaster as if Dumbledore himself just reached his majority.

"Not at all Nicholas, old friend," Dumbledore started, "a pleasant holiday as well, now where is dear Perenelle?"

Nicholas sat himself in front of the office's desk as the Headmaster sat behind his; the young looking six hundred sixty-five year old regarded his former apprentice with a pensieve look. Nicholas decided to get to the crux of the matter, since it was always better to get the seriousness out of the way.

"As you know, we have started working on a new stone ever since that wraith of your Dark Lord came knocking in our doors." Nicholas said in an indifferent tone. "I assume he's taken the bait then?"

Dumbledore conceded that they indeed needed to take the serious discussion out of the way first, "Indeed Tom has, but this had the unpleasant effect of endangering the children. Though we were successful on the destruction of the stone, Tom doesn't know it and I'm afraid he's still after the very object that's no longer within his grasp."

Nicholas contemplated for a moment, "I see that you are worried, which means you haven't pinned the wraith down with the school's wards. There is only one way for your wraith to circumvent the wards…"

Dumbledore nodded in agreement as he had thought as much. Since the Halloween incident, there had only been one explanation as to how Tom could have brought in trolls into the castle as diversion while he went for the stone, one of his staff was carrying the Dark Lord's wraith, though really, there was only one other suspect besides Professor Trelawney who wasn't present at dinner as she had always been.

But to confront Professor Quirrell at any given moment would spell danger to his charges. The only thing the Headmaster could hope was for Tom and his possessed vessel to eventually slip up and fall to their runic trap, hopefully, without any of the students to witness the gruesome sight after.

Nicholas, on his part, could quite literally see the gears in his former apprentice's head turn, "Again Albus, I apologize for sending you the stone to destroy, but he is your Dark Lord and had you listened to me the first time he struck and thoroughly destroyed the arrogant babe; so many lives could have been saved."

Dumbledore's shoulder slumped ever so slightly as he was once again politely dressed down by his mentor.

Nicholas continued, "Although, I see your pacifism has considerably decreased this past decade judging by what I saw on that last entry of your pensieve. What year was that boy in? Third year?"

"Oh no, young Harry is on his first year here." Dumbledore responded; glad that his former mentor expertly changed the subject.

Nicholas was only mildly surprised and quite intrigued, "Harry Potter you say? Quite the prodigy you've landed, but that shall be a discussion for another time. For now however, what say we have Perenelle join us for some holiday brandy?"

Dumbledore returned to his previous demeanor and nodded, whilst both phoenixes disappeared in a flash of raven and crimson flames, then flashed back a moment later with Nicholas' equally young looking wife Perenelle.

* * *

**A/N: What do you think? For questions, direct them via PM, so I don't have to answer questions on author's notes in following chapters so as not to make my story seem to contain a lot of words only to have author's notes occupy about 35% of each chapter. I know how frustrating that can be for readers.**


	9. The Common Hours until the year's end

**A/N: Apologies for the delay but here it is, hope you enjoy.**

**UnBeta'd Chapter**

* * *

Hogwarts

Headmaster's Office

January 3, 1992

Albus Dumbledore sat behind his desk as he contemplated the beginning of another year. The Headmaster woke at such an ungodly hour, perhaps even more so than a certain resident Gryffindor prodigy, and found himself reviewing the past events of the yuletide season.

Normally, this would have been the time for the wizened wizard to reflect on events of the previous years; the developments in the ministry, the subtle rise and fall of their economy and such. But for the past decade or so, Wizarding Britain has been steadily rising to its magical neighbors' expectations, granted those were many late night visits from minister Fudge seeking his counsel.

This time however, Dumbledore was lost in thought at the slight altercation that transpired between the youngest male Weasley and the sole Potter scion a few days before New Year.

As Dumbledore knew, James' and Lily's son had taken to wandering the castle early in the morning. At a time most children his age certainly won't be caught up and about. Although, he had to agree that such practice was most certainly relaxing for an old wizard such as himself and invigorating for any youth before they start their day.

With the current situation on the forbidden corridor, Dumbledore would have warned the Potter heir off of such daily activities but since the young wizard purposely wandered away from such hazard, there was no need for alarm.

A glaring difference could be said for youngest male Weasley however, what with being one of the first and last of the student body to defy the rule and sought out the forbidden corridor in hopes of finding the reason for its restriction.

It was quite a surprise that both boys have found themselves in a certain disused and completely out of the way classroom where he had kept the Mirror of Erised, a magical artifact of unknown maker and origin. The Mirror's original use has escaped Wizarding knowledge since its discovery nearly a century ago; but Dumbledore liked to think that one important feature was to empower inspiration.

After all, when one sees their greatest desire reflected back at them, wouldn't they be inspired to strive for what they desired most.

The Headmaster has set up certain restrictions of course; he wasn't that naïve that he would let anybody see what their greatest desire was, hence the monitoring charms on the disused classroom it was kept in.

o0o

_Harry was on his usual morning wandering of the castle when he came upon a disused classroom. With the classroom's door ajar and soft illumination coming from within, natural curiosity kicked in and he carefully approached and opened the door._

_He found Ron sat in front of a mirror. He wasn't surprised at the youngest male Weasley's changed of tactics though it was certainly odd for Ron to have gone about wandering on the wrong side of the castle._

_"Never took you for a morning person, especially on holidays Weasley." Harry said, hoping to get the redhead's attention without startling him, much._

_When Ron didn't respond, Harry slowly approached and noted that the youngest male Weasley had a dreamily aspiring look on his face as he kept staring at the mirror._

_Ron made no indication that he had detected the raven-haired wizard's approach, Harry gently placed a hand on the redhead's shoulder and slightly shook him for good measure; all the while readying his wand for any surprise reaction. Startling an armed pubescent wizard, one must always be vigilant after all and Ron's conscious mind was certainly adrift._

_The gesture must have worked when Ron turned to see Harry and almost jumped back had he not already gotten used to his classmate's eerily silent approaches most of the time; though in the raven-haired wizard's defense, it wasn't his fault that most children his age wasn't as observant as his chosen peers._

_Ron let out a soft gasped and said, "Harry! I didn't think you'd be out so late. What say we not bring this to a Professor's attention, yeah?"_

_Harry inclined his head to one side and looked at Ron curiously. "Late? Its five thirty in the morning Weasley." He casually said as he casted a quick '_Tempus_', with his readied wand, for proof._

_Ron's eyes widened, "Blimey, I've been out that late!?"_

_Harry shrugged, though intrigued; he kept up his casual look of indifference. "You tell me Weasley, what time did you sneak out again last night?" he asked as he wouldn't have known since little Tori had apparently wanted an extension for her 'Harry' teddy bear. He was lucky enough to have escaped this morning when Daphne took mercy and discretely switched places with him._

_Ron looked lost in thought for a moment, "I sneaked out maybe a little after curfew, and then Filch and his cat almost caught me… then Snape and this other Professor with that great big purple turban were discreetly talking about…" the redhead looked up sharply as he almost forgot that he wasn't supposed to be divulging this information outside the three of them, meaning his two other friends._

_Harry's eyes narrowed ever so slightly but he schooled his expressions before Ron looked up and caught himself, "Well then, I suggest you head back to the dorm room and get some sleep Weasley." Harry nonchalantly said as if Ron's slip wasn't noticed and for that, the redhead seemed to breathe out in relief._

_"Oh! Err… right" Ron responded and yawned, "But first, you have got to see this mate! This thing is amazing, I don't know how it does it but I sure do hope it shows the future!" he excitedly stated._

_Harry turned to the mirror that was now brought into his attention. Ron motioned for him to stand in front of the mirror but looked at it wistfully before he did so._

_"Weasley, what…" Harry was about to ask what he should be looking for when his expression changed from his usual façade to curiosity and then dread._

_Ron expected tons of reaction from his classmate but dread and a touch bit of sorrow certainly weren't among them._

_The redhead was even more surprised when Harry turned to him and what he saw would have sent him running if he wasn't already frozen in place by surprise at Harry's cold fury. "What is this Weasley? Explain to me why I'm seeing my dead parents along with everyone I love? You better pray it doesn't show the future or so help me…" Harry stopped dead on his words and strode purposely out of the classroom and left the door open._

_The raven-haired wizard left Ron shocked and mouth gaping. Confused as to how or why Harry saw those images when his own reflection showed him something that surely any typical pubescent wizard could think off. The redhead saw himself having achieved all that his big brothers have achieved individually, only for him, he achieved them all, Head Boy, quidditch captain and holding both house and quidditch cup, respected and adored._

_'If it's not the future that the mirror shows… then what?' a thought that ran through Ron's mind as he sat back on the floor, unaware of their audience who was about to admonish the youngest male Weasley for having spent such long hours in front of the mirror when Harry walked in earlier._

_"I would assume that you are still confused as to what the mirror truly does Mr. Weasley?" the Headmaster asked as he made himself known to his student._

_Startled by the Headmaster's appearance, Ron abruptly stood. "Headmaster, I… err… Sorry if I'm out of bounds but you see…" Ron stuttered out._

_"It is quite alright Mr. Weasley. I myself was about to address you for staying out too late when Mr. Potter walked in. Now if you would read the inscription backwards on the mirror; that should give you a clue."_

_Ron followed the point of the Headmaster's gesture and saw said inscription. He was confused at first, but as he reread and reread the inscription backwards, he finally read out loud, "I show not your face but your Heart's Desire… Is that it Headmaster?"_

_At Dumbledore's nod, Ron continued, "I guess I can understand what I saw, but what about Harry sir? Does that mean that his desire is to see his parents alive and well along with the people he love?"_

_"Alas Mr. Weasley, that is his heart's truest desire. But I would assume he reacted as he did basing on your own presumptions about the mirror. Had he known, he would have reacted differently though I would think that this was for the best. It does not do us good to dwell on dreams and forget to live Mr. Weasley, remember that."_

_Ron reddened in embarrassment. Dumbledore continued, "The purpose of this mirror and its location is that I hope to inspire those to better themselves Mr. Weasley and not simply waste away in front of the mirror wondering if what they saw is real or even possible. I hope I have given you enough time to think on this." The Headmaster said with a penetrating gaze._

_"Yes Headmaster, I guess I should apologize to Harry and explain the mirror."_

_"I believe that won't be necessary Mr. Weasley, as he had just left and heard our conversation." Dumbledore said with a grandfatherly smile as he turned slightly towards the door and could still see the raven-haired boy's retreating back._

_"However, I would caution you, not to seek out this mirror again Mr. Weasley. As I said, it does do to dwell on dreams… I hope for it to merely inspire, not waste potential."_

_Ron nodded as he reddened again, clearly thinking that he would want to visit again. "Yes Headmaster… err… I should go."_

_"Of course Mr. Weasley."_

o0o

That encounter gave the Headmaster a little more insight as to the enigma that is Harry Potter. He had once again felt that the decision he made years ago, was the right one. Sirius certainly raised a fine, confident and independent young man on his opinion.

Truly, the boy has so much potential that hope for a rising, better and innovative Wizarding Britain that not just their generation but more to come promises.

But as the Dumbledore kept contemplating, there was still one great struggle that their Wizarding community needed to overcome and the wizened wizard was adamant to guide and mold the younger generation so that they may be ready when Tom rises once again.

If only his and his mentor's plan worked perfectly, they could trap the wraith, which Lord Voldemort has been reduced to, here and now; that would certainly give them all the time they needed to end his existence once and for all; for Dumbledore was sure that if that was not to be the case, Tom would certainly keep on finding ways to regain a body and once again plunge their country into the horrors of war; and if that may be, then hopefully, Wizarding Britain will be ready this time.

o0o

Hogwarts

January 4, 1992

A quiet morning early in the castle where the students as usual on a weekend slept in since it would be the weekend before start of second term. Daphne woke at the usual ungodly hour she and Harry usually woke at with a certain Gryffindor bookworm just minutes ahead of them who also happened to share their friendship.

As she readied for the day, Daphne was fairly certain she wouldn't find Harry in the trophy room. Free from his responsibilities of testing out the enhanced muggle devices along with the holidays over thus also freed him from being 'Harry' teddy bear for her sister Astoria, Harry had taken to rigorously practicing again his ridiculously advanced, for his age, spell-repertoire.

Daphne made her way to the common room with a ruefully awakened Tracey. The auburn-haired girl expressed her willingness to advance a bit on her practical spells, albeit grudgingly at the time she had to wake so early. They met with the quiet Blaise who was already propped by the common room fire as he read through his book.

The three then made their way to the empty disused classroom that Tonks suggested they could practice as she did from time to time in preparation for her practical exams as well as some of her own rigorous training sessions for Auror Academy or better yet, if she impressed someone important enough, an apprenticeship.

True enough, as the three entered the designated room, they found Harry with Hermione and Neville. Neville most probably came just so he could escape the bane of his existence, Ron's snoring. Sure he casts a silencing charm on the redhead, the redhead's curtains and for good measure, the four poster bed as well every night but that also left him with the task of dispelling the charms every morning lest the boy noticed.

Hermione had expressed the same concerns as Tracey though waking up early wasn't a problem to her as she was used to it. At the moment however, Hermione seemed to be writing a letter on one of the desk.

Daphne along with Tracey and Blaise approached Hermione and Neville. They exchanged morning pleasantries whilst foregoing their greetings for Harry as the raven-haired boy seemed to be in deep concentration at the feat of magic he was preoccupied with for the mean time.

Tonks, who was standing in a dark corner of the room observing her cousin, went to their group. "I still can't wrap my mind at how he can just casually do that." she said with a huff as she sat.

Indeed, as they turned their attention to Harry; the emerald-eyed boy stood with a transfigured wooden chair into what seemed to be the shape of a wooden visual representation of an atom whilst it floated in front of him as he added charms to keep the different parts in motion.

It only served to agitate his cousin more when Harry wore his façade of indifference while he practiced magic. Ever so slightly, he would tilt his head sideward as he started to change the wooden visual representation into metal of the same constructed shape.

Tonks raised her hands in exasperation, "That's it, I won't even be surprised anymore if he somehow manages to turn that into gold…" she gasped, "You don't think he heard that do you? Merlin, I can't look…" she turned away from what her cousin was doing much to the amusement of Daphne and the others.

Tonks' present company, except Harry, softly laughed at her expense. With eyes closed, the pink-haired witch reached out to confirm she was facing Daphne, "Tell me, did cousin break another universal rule?"

Quite tired at the older girl's early morning antics, Daphne poked the girl in the ribs while Hermione, who was in rapt attention at what Harry was doing, proceeded to state her observation. "I don't think Harry's done anything beyond the universal rules of transfiguration and even if he did, wouldn't that mean that he's made a significant discovery?" the ever so curious girl mused.

Neville leaned in to mock-conspiratorially whisper for everyone's benefit, "Oh you've done it now Hermione… Wait for it in 5…4…3…2…"

"That's exactly the point isn't it!?" Tonks hissed as she prepared to start her tirade, "Cousin has been doing some spectacular feats with magic since he was able to talk coherent sentences. At five, he was able to do that wandless _wingardium leviosa_; ok, granted that he was willing to teach me how to do it which was, come to think of it, quite easy when you put yourself in the shoes of a five year-old about to have a tantrum;and don't even get me started on how there are no locked doors at their manor that he couldn't into…"

Neville once again leaned in, to whisper this time, "See, told you. Just tune her out when she's like that about Harry. It's just Tonks way of bragging about her amazing cousin. Though, you have to admit, Harry kind of is… genes, you know…"

Hermione giggled and did as Neville suggested. They waited for Tonks to finish her rant so that she may proceed in teaching some advanced spells from their curriculum.

Daphne, Tracey and Blaise seemed to be on the same boat and did as Hermione and Neville did, only with more practiced expressions.

Tonks ended her tirade and then spent the next hour instructing Daphne and the rest some of the advanced charms and transfiguration she deemed were a necessity in life. Not too advanced, they were after all just around twelve years of age and they'll get to those lessons eventually, unlike her cousin Harry who was just beyond the norm of a typical boy his age and just did independent study on his own.

As they prepared to head for an early breakfast, Daphne asked, "Tonks? Did you place some listening charms on the corridor by this room?"

Tonks nodded and Daphne proceeded to request, "Can you tie us to it?"

"Yes, now that you mention it, someone's walking by…" Tonks said and tied the younger students to the charms, though quite the challenging task.

Surprisingly enough or maybe not for that matter, Daphne along with the rest heard Ron, Seamus and Dean from the other side through the listening charms.

_"It just doesn't make sense mate, why would you think Professor Snape is in it to steal the stone just from hearing that conversation? The potions master seems to be a decent enough bloke if you ask me…"_ They heard Dean said.

_"You're just saying that because you and Seamus got paired up with Harry and Neville after that incident with Seamus' cauldron while I got paired up with Bulstrode in Slytherin. You've both been receiving high marks ever since."_ Ron responded with touch hint of accusation.

The room's occupants then heard someone being clapped in the back as they heard Dean said, _"Just be thankful you weren't paired up with Malfoy mate. The two of you together would have been a lot more volatile than Seamus with a wand."_

_"Hey! I'm right here you know!"_ Seamus exclaimed.

_"Why couldn't have Snape paired me off to Hermione when you got paired up with Harry?"_ Ron honestly wondered.

Seamus answered this time, _"Probably because the Professor thought you would have let her do all the work while you pretended to help with the ingredients. Be honest mate, you would have just mooched off on her work…"_

Daphne heard Hermione snorted in agreement beside her and heard her mutter that sounded suspiciously like, 'like that'll ever happen'.

_"Hey! That is… perfectly true…"_ Ron conceded as he was quite aware of his lazy nature when it came to school work. _"Can't blame a bloke for wanting an easy life at school right?"_

Daphne and the others heard the trio share a good natured laugh as their voices faded as they walked further away from Tonks' set charms.

As Tonks canceled the charms, Harry spoke, "Well that was an interesting bit of information…" he looked towards Hermione who had an inquisitive look on her face, "No, not about Potions class. Now I wonder what made Weasley think that Professor Snape would be after the stone."

That made them stop and think for a moment until Harry spoke again as he waved it off, "Anyway, no point delving too much into the matter, it's Weasley's self-imposed adventure, not ours."

They nodded in agreement whilst Blaise let out a final statement about Ron just upholding to their house's characteristic being the perfect example of a typical Gryffindor.

o0o

The group headed for breakfast. As they walked, Daphne walked beside Hermione and asked, "Letter for your parents? We never did ask but have your parents decided yet whether to transfer you?"

Hermione actually blushed at the thought of how she had managed to convince her parents, "Well… I made a deal with mum and dad that if I attend muggle-school during summers and not downplay events here at Hogwarts again that they let me stay."

Daphne smiled at Hermione, "Well played Hermione but I'm guessing that they're looking into some other magical schools to transfer you to just in case, am I right?"

Hermione nodded, "Beauxbatons Academy seemed to have appealed to mum more actually while dad seemed more inclined to America's Salem and the muggle-college version which is the Scholia Arcana though the latter is quite exclusive to those endorsed only by masters of the highest degree."

They both fell back of the group as they casually talked. Daphne nodded, "Yes, quite right. Very few are qualified to hand out such an endorsement. Our esteemed Headmaster being one of them; he hasn't given any recommendation, what with the last Wizarding war, many of brilliant minds and talented individuals lost."

Daphne and Hermione were both silent for a moment, "Though, I'm glad your parents won't pull you out anytime soon." Daphne said with warm smile.

"Thank you Daphne," Hermione returned with her own brilliant smile.

As their group neared the Great Hall, a lone figure leaned beside the double doors of the hall. They found Draco Malfoy who seemed to be waiting for someone.

Draco turned his attention to the approaching group as he heard them approach. "Cousin, I'd like to have a word…" He requested to Harry.

Harry curtly nodded and turned slightly towards the others, "I'll be right with you." He said and shared a brief look with Daphne before his best friend conceded with a barely visible nod. Daphne then ushered a concerned Hermione in to the Great Hall.

o0o

Draco led his cousin into an empty classroom as the latter just eerily walked a few steps behind him. As they entered, he heard his cousin utter a few privacy charms on the doors and the area around them. It seemed that Harry had participated on Neville's advanced lessons with Professor Flitwick; it was advanced study after all.

For Harry, he just patiently waited for his cousin Draco to start with whatever his cousin wanted to have discussion about. Over the years since they've met and introduced as family, they've only ever treated each other as mere acquaintances. With Draco's previously full on support for his father's beliefs, albeit such beliefs in the current Wizarding society were no longer openly accepted. Harry could only think of a number of topics the both of them can intelligently have.

"You kept your wand in hand." Draco started, "do you not trust me cousin?" he asked as he kept his back to Harry while the emerald-boy kept his gaze on him as he leaned back into a Professor's desk.

"Call it a precaution, cousin." Harry responded with an amused tone as he wore an expression of indifference. "You of all people should know that we, raised in the Wizarding World, are at the very least a few semesters ahead of those that weren't, in terms of practical application of magic."

Draco snorted, "Speak for yourself cousin; you started your magical training at the age of five. I'd say that even those in our age group are struggling to get a grasp on what you can do so casually."

"Perhaps… Although, I hardly think you wanted to talk about academics,"

"No, I wasn't." Draco said, he took a deep breath, "Father and his teachings, have been contradicting themselves. A semester here proved enough of the uselessness of his and his friends' pureblood supremacy. Though just so it's clear, are you sure that Granger isn't a lost pureblood?"

To say that Harry was amused was an understatement. This was the last thing he expected to discuss with Draco. Harry felt it safe to let out a chuckle of amusement and answered his cousin's question, "Yes, I'm quite sure Hermione is in fact a first of her line. Now, go on with your queries cousin."

Draco finally turned to face Harry, as he did; he let a slight sneer grace his face. He could never match the way his cousin carried himself; there was just this sense of maturity he detects from his cousin that he could never put a finger on.

Draco took another steadying breath, talking with Harry has always been a bit daunting, even when they were younger. He squared his shoulders and said, "I've decided to silently denounce my father's beliefs."

Harry slightly inclined his head, "Why the sudden shift in opinion cousin?" he asked.

The pale-blonde boy scoffed in annoyance at the sudden memory flash from his holiday, "Because seeing your own father meet up with his 'old crowd' just so they could gloat about pureblood this and pureblood that is starting to grate on my nerves." Draco said in an irritated tone.

"Don't get me wrong cousin, I still believe those of us that are raised in magical society should be respected as we have been living with magic for most of our lives but loath as I am to say it; I realized that such respect has to be earned and that, of course, goes both ways." Draco admitted.

For a long while, Harry just gazed at Draco as he contemplated what his cousin has said. Draco finally decided to break their long bit of silence, "Well!? In case you're wondering cousin, I'm in need of your counsel… Oh and might I just add how unnerving it is to be in your presence. How do you keep doing that?"

Harry let out an amused chuckle, "Years of practice. It didn't sit well with me how I acted back when I was five although, I believe I should thank you, that temper tantrum I had was quite productive."

Draco barely managed to suppress a wince at that particular memory. He was after all, on the receiving end of that particular incident.

"Though, I must say cousin that I am at loss as to what to say. Clearly, these are revelations you had for yourself and I wouldn't want to color your decision with my opinion." Harry said.

"I thought you might say that." Draco said as he pondered his cousin's stance.

"You'll come to find your answer in time cousin. Now, how about some breakfast, and I'm sure you'd want to harass Weasley on the earliest opportunity." Harry said with a straight face.

Draco slipped and sneered at Harry, "Might as well. After you cousin, your privacy charms are still in place. And I'll have you know that harassing Weasley isn't the highlight of my day." he insisted.

"Of course, cousin," Harry said as he removed the privacy charms. "Though it still ranks up there doesn't it?" He added as he walked out of the room towards the Great Hall, leaving a confused Draco who took a moment to mull over what he meant.

"It most certainly does not!" Harry heard Draco exclaim from still inside the empty classroom while he entered the Great Hall.

o0o

Back in the Great Hall, after Daphne along with Hermione, Tracey, Tonks, Blaise and Neville sat themselves comfortably on the rather empty Slytherin table; the pale-blonde girl noticed Hermione's increasingly worried glances at the Great Hall's double doors.

Daphne placed a comforting hand on Hermione's shoulder, "Stop worrying Hermione, Harry is more than capable of handling Malfoy. Besides, I'm quite sure his cousin just wanted to discuss some non-quintessential things."

Hermione sighed and nodded in understanding. Tonks proceeded to reassure as she said, "Daphne's right Hermione, these two…"

Blaise coughed to get the older girl's attention, "And what were we and Tracey? Mince meat?" he deadpanned.

Tonks eyes narrowed, "Fine… These four…" she paused as she looked at Neville.

Neville held his hands up, "Not going to interrupt Tonks, I may be Gryffindor but I'm not that brave." He said and drew a soft laughter from the others, he added in an undertone, "I'm perfectly aware that Malfoy doesn't sit well with magical plants that can grow up to five feet in height after all."

"Anyway, as I was saying, these four have put up with _dear _cousin Draco most of their childhood and well, most of the time Draco would go running to his father. Not that these four were bullies, no. But Draco could never hold a convincing argument."Tonks said and saw that the young girl relaxed a bit.

Tracey chose that time to settle their friend, "And do you want to know another reason not to worry about Harry?"

Hermione perked up in interest and Tracey continued, "Because here's Harry now and by the looks of things, he seems fine to me." She giggled at the perfectly timed opportunity.

Daphne rolled her eyes at Tracey's antics.

Harry entered the Great Hall as Tracey said and he made his way towards the Slytherin table, he sat on the spot Daphne had gestured to him between her and Hermione. He immediately noticed that Hermione had been worried and proceeded to reassure her with a simple smile that to children their age obviously meant a lot.

"What did Malfoy wanted to talk about?" Daphne asked as they started on their breakfast.

"Nothing overly important at the moment, just his thoughts about some things he'd come to realization recently." Harry said.

Tracey gasped in an amusing kind of way, "Oooh, Malfoy using his brain, has hell frozen over?" she said and drew a bout of amused reactions from the others.

Daphne sighed as she gained control of her expression, "Enough Tracey, the Prince should be along in a minute and we wouldn't want to draw his attention."

Tracey giggled, "Yes, and here he comes now."

As Draco entered, he made a show of avoiding Harry and his group; he sat far from them in the Slytherin table. All the while, he had a look of distaste on his face.

This raised an eyebrow from the girls towards Harry, but the emerald-eyed boy just shrugged it off and left it at that which Tracey took as 'point Harry', 'Draco nothing' on her ever growing tally.

o0o

With the start of the second term, life at Hogwarts for the students went on as normal or rather, as normal as it can be for a School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The Gryffindor and Slytherin rivalry went as strong as it can be between the youngest male Weasley along with his friends and the self-proclaimed Slytherin prince with his own set of friends.

As for Harry and his friends, things went on routinely. Tonks kept teaching the group of first years advanced spells that they easily grasped, oddly enough, the lot of them were studious and diligent enough to steadily advance and improve.

Though for Harry, he kept up with his daily routine in mind arts which in turn gave him better overall control of his magic, which has been fluctuating ever since that unnerving dream the night before the first of September but steadily stabilized overtime during the school's first term, as well as making school easier which served his purpose quite well since having an organized mind would do that after all.

Towards the end of the school year, there were two notable events that Harry and his friends were quite fond of recounting. Though, one of those events somehow served to immensely annoy Daphne while at the same time immensely amuse Hermione.

o0o

Hogwarts

Great Hall

February 14, 1992

It was Valentine's Day and Daphne awoke to the scent of a single blue rose in an elegant vase on her bedside desk, beside it were a card and her favorite brand of the non-magical chocolate. She smiled as she took the scent of the rose given by Harry, as he had done over the years since they met.

Daphne knew she wasn't the only one to be receiving a friendly valentine from her best friend but it's always the gesture that counted.

As she sat and read the card, Daphne heard Tracey giggle when the auburn-haired girl woke up and found her own yellow rose in a vase along with her own favorite brand of chocolate.

Daphne managed to resist rolling her eyes at Tracey when the auburn-haired girl giggled some more as she took a bite from her chocolate. Tracey on a sugar high early in the morning was and will certainly be a thing to behold.

The pale-blonde haired girl stood and replaced the vase on her beside desk; she headed for the bathroom to get ready for the day. "Easy on the sweets Tracey or would you rather want a repeat of your ninth birthday?" she paused for a thoughtful look and continued, "Though it was quite effective on cheering Luna up but then again, you never know…" she trailed off.

In response, Tracey with her best mock-glare at Daphne, stuck her chocolate coated tongue out at her friend's retreating back and happily returned to her treat.

After some time of their preparation for the day, Daphne and Tracey along with Blaise found themselves in the Great Hall. They were joined by Harry, Neville, Hermione and Tonks; both of the latter once again thanked Harry, Neville and Blaise for the friendly valentine gifts whilst Daphne kissed Harry's cheek as she had done over the years and Tracey just giggled after thanking him as she rode out her sugar high.

In the middle of their breakfast, owls started swooping in delivering valentine's gifts, cards, letters and the day's paper.

Hedwig stood out from the rest as she obviously arrived first carrying a distinctly purple colored envelop, closely followed by Neville's eagle owl named Trevor and he too carried quite a few mail.

When the snowy owl landed smoothly on Harry's shoulder and held her leg for him to take the purple envelop, Daphne knew who exactly the purple howler-type letter was from. Daphne fixed her own owl with an annoyed and mild glare and mouthed to Hedwig, "you traitor…"

Hedwig in turn, gave her human the best affronted look she could muster and then proudly held her head high as she took Harry's offered bacon. She flew from his shoulder, purposely avoided Daphne and then landed near Hermione and Tracey for their ration of bacon.

Hermione and Tracey only snickered at the visual banter between Daphne and Hedwig as they continued their breakfast. Tracey on her part, of course knew what got Daphne a tad bit annoyed though she wouldn't risk teasing her pale-blonde friend about it as she'd rather stay warm for the rest of the day.

By that time, Harry had unsealed the letter and let the nice purple howler deliver its message which caught the other's attention including their owls.

The voice that sounded off of the magical letter was quite melodic as it started, _"Gabby! Behave, it's starting…"_ there was a mumbled light expletive but then continued with the message in French. _"Harry! Thank you for the flowers, they're beautiful. I hope you like my charms work after this message. Anyway, Gabby wants to thank you too."_

The purple howler was obviously very different from the red one as this one only conveyed a normal message without its volume magically amplified since it wasn't used to reprimand or just shout at someone through a letter.

The message was cut for but a second until a younger yet still melodic sounding voice sounded, that oddly shared the same enthusiasm that a certain pale-blonde Slytherin first year's younger sister had.

_"Harry-Harry-Harry-Harry-Harry!" _the little girl started. _"Say, 'yes Gabby?'."_

Harry chuckled and followed the instruction as he said _"Yes Gabby?"_ in the little girl's language.

Gabby's giggles were recorded in the message, she continued, _"Did you say it?"_ apparently her older sister's reprimand was also recorded when they heard _"Gabrielle!" _in the background.

It seemed that her older sister's reprimand only caused for Gabby to giggle more and whispered in a conspiratorial manner through the recording, _"Anyway… thank you for the sweets Harry… I especially like the ones for my sister…"_

Harry felt Daphne secretly cheer on little Gabby as they listened, _"What! Gabrielle you give those back right now!"_ the message trailed off as more giggling were heard until the message cut off and the purple howler exploded into a handful of rose petals and vanished its own mess before they even landed on his breakfast.

After their quite an eventful breakfast, the rest of the day was spent going about their class schedules with the girls contently happy, with Tracey, even more so.

o0o

Hogwarts' Dungeons

Potions Classroom

May 15, 1992

The Gryffindor and Slytherin first years were at their double potions class. With the quick and steady pace of the Potions Master, even with the obvious slackers, they have effectively finished the first year syllabus about a month early as they now reviewed and brewed once again the material that will certainly find its way into the their final exams.

Harry however, only kept half of his attention on the lessons for he was starting to get a bit worried. Sirius and Remus haven't checked in with him since the end of January.

He had been tempted half a dozen of times to contact them using the mirror but he wasn't exactly sure what kind of predicament the two have gotten themselves into this time and he certainly didn't want to make it worse if his godfather and honorary uncle have actually gotten themselves in a bit of pinch; Harry knew they always pulled through.

His worries were proven useless however when the unmistakable booming voice of Sirius sounded through the dungeon halls and into the classroom.

"Severus! We have it! Some new potion ingredients you can play with! Top notch quality if I might add and…" Sirius bellowed as he entered the potions classroom, intent on heading straight into the potions Master's office.

Sirius was cut short when he was met by the glare of Severus Snape, as well as the general startled faces of the Gryffindor and Slytherin first years save for a few who had the presence of mind to secure their ingredients and lower the flames or for some who had the knowledge, casted a stasis charm on their simmering potion to the best of their ability.

Sirius grinned sheepishly and said, "Err… sorry, did I interrupt something?"

At the question, most of the classroom's occupants had the overwhelming urge to palm their faces but they schooled their expressions nonetheless. An exemption was when the students heard a dull thud when Ron was pushed from his seat by his partner.

"That's five points to Slytherin Miss Bulstrode for saving your partner from making a volatile mixture just because he had an urge to do something comical." Professor Snape said in his usual baritone.

"An additional five points to those who had successfully placed their potions in stasis." The Professor added.

The Potions Master then turned to Sirius and said, "Black, Lupin, in my office."

Sirius just grinned and headed towards Snape's office while Remus casted an apologetic glance at the class of first years as well as a lingering apologetic smile to Harry, that in itself placated the emerald-eyed boy knowing that they would explain later.

Before the Professor strode into his office, he addressed to the class, "Continue with your potions. After you have finished, place a sample on my desk then you are dismissed. Zabini, Longbottom, report any disturbances; Prefects will be along shortly. That is all."

Both boys nodded respectfully and responded with a simple "Yes Sir" as Professor Snape strode into his office.

o0o

It wasn't long until everybody finished their potions and promptly let their selves out of the potions classroom. Blaise and Neville waited for everyone to finish cleaning up after themselves and then followed the rest save for Harry, who said to his friends that he would stay to wait for Sirius and Remus.

After he was left alone, Harry took out his mirror to listen on the discussion between the three adults in Professor Snape's office. The mirror has been buzzing in his pocket as his godfather activated the listen-only feature on it through his own mirror.

_"…I see, now for the sake of your godson who is most probably listening in, now that the classroom is empty,"_ Harry heard Professor Snape started through the mirror.

_"The both of you traveled to America; worked with your contact; half-way through the search of these Shifters' tribe, you had a run in with a considerably large vampire coven; your contact turned tail along with half of the agreed five-thousand galleons fee only to discover that this coven you encountered were a lot more help than said contact. Am I on track so far?" _the Professor recounted.

_"Well you haven't mentioned how smoking-hot the women of this coven…"_ Sirius started.

But he was promptly cut off by Remus with a, _"Sirius! Be serious! No don't start with that…"_

_"Moving on… When both of you were finally pointed at the right direction; that was when you last contacted around the end of January. When you finally made contact with the tribe's chief; said chieftain convinced you to stay for a time with the mutual agreement of presenting each other's affliction with Lupin under the influence of wolfsbane of course."_

It was Remus who confirmed this time.

_"I believe you mentioned that said tribe members' reactions ranged from scared to terrified and simply awed for the elders and chief."_ A short pause; then Professor Snape continued, _"And then after a mutual agreement from both sides, in exchange of the hairs, saliva, blood and tooth from both forms of this chief shifter was a favor that will be called upon you two on a later date, correct?"_

Again, it was Remus who confirmed the Professor's recounting.

_"Very well; Now, I wouldn't want to keep your godson from hexing you into oblivion Black. I had heard talks of how he turned a troll's head into tomato soup in a blink of an eye…" _Professor Snape said in a cool indifferent manner and purposely left it hanging.

It wasn't long until Sirius and Remus made their way out of Snape's office. As soon as Sirius caught sight of Harry, he resisted the urge to audibly gulp and turned to Remus. "Moony? Why do I get the feeling that I should be heading for the hills by now?" He asked as he warily looked at his godson.

"Probably because we both should be doing just that Padfoot, but once upon a time, we were Gryffindors were we not?"

Harry softly laughed at both adults' antics, "No need for alarm both of you. I was listening in after all. How about a walk around the castle Padfoot, Moony; we might find Tonks along the way. I'm sure she'd be happy to know that you both are safe and inform Aunt Andy that you're both back."

Harry's words, more than anything caused a shiver to run down Sirius' back as Harry purposely strode out of the classroom first. Between Narcissa and Andromeda, Sirius was a tad bit more frightful of Andy when it comes to having his godson worried for a couple of months on end or so without contact.

Andromeda Tonks may not screech like his late mother Walburga Black but she has her own way of expressing her displeasure at his parenting skills at times. Sirius was certainly not looking forward to seeing his cousin Andy anytime soon.

With that, Sirius and Remus followed Harry out of the classroom. All the while, Sirius could be heard muttering about vindictive godsons with Lily's mean streak and James' cunning without the spirit of fun. Sometimes, Sirius just wished Harry would prank him or something but thought better of when he realized that maybe it wasn't any better for him if Harry took up his marauder heritage.

o0o

Hogwarts

Courtyard

June 19, 1992

It was the end of year's final practical with their exams done the week prior; Harry along with his friends decided to spend the rest of the day by the courtyards where most of the school's student population were.

With the year done, Hermione sat with Daphne and Tracey while they discussed more about the differences between Wizarding cultures in contrast with the non-magical as well as magical traditions she should be familiar of. Blaise was being his usual aloof self as he opened up a book, most probably; one his mother 'convinced' him to read.

Neville was with them until after lunch and he proceeded to the greenhouses right after. As for Harry, he just sat with his friends whilst he observed those in his surroundings.

Tonks, with her visible pink hair, was situated on the battlements. Flashes of her spell work could be seen shot into the air. Sure there were rules about doing magic in the halls but the battlements were not exactly a hall where random students and staff members would normally walk through; that and a change of scenery from a disused classroom was nice once in a while.

What caught Harry's attention however, was Gryffindor's very own trouble trio, Weasley, Thomas and Finnigan. The three, led by Ron, insisted they be called the Golden Trio because of their lead in the battle against their own year's batch of Slytherins but that's still up for debate among the house of lions.

Ever since the news of the Weasley patriarch's new prestigious ministerial position in his expanded and improved ministry department, Draco quickly grabbed the opportunity to taunt the youngest male Weasley about how most of the men in the Weasley family now have a worthy achievement in life. Most, being the word that was greatly emphasized by the Malfoy heir. Draco even went as far as to state that with Ron having a younger sister, being female was already in itself an achievement considering how precious she was to the family.

Needless to say, this caused the youngest male Weasley to strive harder on his self-imposed adventure of obtaining the item hidden in the forbidden corridor, not to mention the time Ron stepped up a notch the rivalry he has going on with Draco and his group.

Harry curiously followed with his eyes as the three moved in quite rush with apprehensive look on their faces. They seemed to be headed towards the transfiguration's classroom judging by the corridor they just turned and disappeared into.

The raven-haired boy simply filed that curious occurrence for the moment and went back to passively observing his surroundings.

o0o

It was later that evening after dinner in the Great Hall that Harry and Neville were asked by Professor McGonagall to be in her office.

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Longbottom," The Professor started as the two entered. "I am not sure as to how informed the two of you are but given the delicate information three of your roommates possesses, I think it's safe to assume that both of you are as informed as well, am I correct?"

The two preteens shared a brief look, "Just partly Professor, are you referring as to what is or rather, _was_ in the forbidden corridor?"

Professor McGonagall nodded, "Yes Mr. Potter. Now, what I will ask from both of you is to keep watch Mr.'s Weasley, Thomas and Finnigan." The Professor paused as she held back a few unsavory comments about three of her lions.

"Normally, this task would be delegated to the prefects but those three seem so determined to find trouble even as we approach the end of the school year."

"Of course Professor, we understand." Neville started, "I don't suppose, you would find it prudent for us to just keep our roommates in full body binds until morning would you?"

Professor fixed her student with a stern glare for a moment, "I will pretend I didn't hear that Mr. Longbottom."

Neville sighed heavily. Harry then spoke up, "We'll keep an eye on them Professor." He simply said.

After a moment, Professor McGonagall nodded and dismissed them.

Before they left however, Neville managed to mutter, "I still think putting those three on body binds for the entire night would save us a lot of trouble…"

Harry chuckled and ushered his friend out the door before the Professor could reprimand them.

o0o

The Professor's concerns were proven accurate later at midnight when almost every soul in Gryffindor tower was asleep, except for five first years. Three of whom planned to slip out of the tower whilst two were tasked to keep a close watch on their roommates.

As soon as Harry and Neville heard the door to their dorm room close after the three, Harry opened his bed's curtains the same time as Neville did.

"How would like to deal with this Neville? Stun and leave them in the common room until morning or shadow them to see what kind of trouble Weasley and his friends will get themselves into this time?" Harry said and stated their options.

"_Or_…" Neville started, "We could just let them have at it with their little castle adventure and tell the Professor those three got the jump on us." He said.

Harry contemplated for a moment, "Hmmm, if you want that kind of humiliating publicity... Defeated by Weasley and his friends… I suppose we can suffer the kind of story the Hogwarts' rumor mill would churn up for however many days left in the school year…" Harry mused as he kept pausing for greater effect and finally trailed off as he finished.

Neville slightly paled and groaned at the perceived scenario. If there was one thing the Longbottom heir never wanted to be perceived as, it was being weak. "Fine, let's just get them, stun each one and then drag them back here where we put them in body binds. And when I say drag, I mean it." Neville said.

Harry bowed slightly and said, "As you wish my lord…"

Neville irritably groaned and shot his friend a mock-glare, "You're never gonna let me live that down are you?"

In turn, Harry just answered his friend with an enigmatic expression as he strode out of the dorm room with his invisibility cloak clutched in one hand, and a rather large book in the other.

The Longbottom heir briefly entertained the thoughts of any possible usage for the book Harry carried with no small amount of glee. He then followed his friend out of the dorm room.

o0o

Harry and Neville traversed Hogwarts' halls silently as they headed for the third floor forbidden corridor. For some reason, the both of them felt certain that the compulsion on the trio wouldn't work this time and would most probably be headed for the correct third floor corridor.

As they neared the forbidden corridor, Harry and Neville heard hushed voices just around the corner that most certainly belonged to the trio. Harry turned to look at Neville and nodded at his friend. Neville understood the gesture as he turned back and headed straight to Professor McGonagall's office.

He may not have the opportunity to fling hexes at the three but, Neville thought with no small amount of glee, bringing the ire of their Head of House upon the three troublemakers was going to be a show he wouldn't want to miss.

As soon as Neville disappeared around the corner, Harry put on his invisibility cloak and walked closer to the three as he listened in on their whispered argument.

"I'm telling you Ron! We should just leave!" Dean heatedly insisted.

"No. Once he's inside, we follow him. I bet we can take him once we reach the stone." Ron said and instructed.

Seamus nodded with a resolved expression. Dean was about to sound his disagreement once more when their defense against the dark arts Professor's voice sounded from behind them. "If you three are quite done arguing, I have a possessed Professor to dismember and a wraith to contain." Professor Croaker eerily said as he ghosted towards a pale looking Professor wearing a turban.

It seemed that Professor Quirrell succeeded in overcoming the runic wards along the corridor but at a great price as he looked about ready to keel over.

The Unspeakable approached the heavily breathing Professor. After a moment, Professor Quirrell stiffened when he detected a presence behind him. "You cannot stop me from retrieving the stone for my master." Professor Quirrell said as he faced the Unspeakable.

Professor Croaker remained eerily silent and with a flash of movement, he sent a purple colored curse towards the weakened Professor Quirrell.

The only thing that saved Professor Quirrell from the possibly lethal curse was his so called master's intervention as his eyes turned red with his face contorted in a look of pain. With the Dark Lord in full control of his host's body, possibly for the last time, he deflected the curse back to the Unspeakable who's already side stepped his own deflected spell.

Unfortunately for Ron who walked directly behind Professor Croaker, the spell now headed for him instead. That's when Harry intervened as he fluidly flung the thick book he was holding between Ron and the spell.

The book exploded into a thousand shredded pieces and pushed Ron a few feet back on his behind. With a very imperceptible nod of approval from Professor Croaker, Harry had his Ebony wand out as he transfigured the falling pieces of the shredded book into six inch long needles and banished them towards the possessed Professor.

Along with the Potter heir's transfigured needles, the Unspeakable followed through with his own lethal curses. Had the Dark Lord been at the height of his power, the first year's attack would have been child's play, but with his host's current weakened state, he barely held against the multitude of spells and a steady stream of six-inch needles sent his way as he felt Quirrell's body crumble under his control.

With his host's impending demise, the wraith of Lord Voldemort let out one last curse, _"Avada Kedavra!"_ the Dark Lord casted as he abandoned his host's body.

Harry immediately saw the tell-tale green glow of the killing curse at the tip of the possessed Professor's wand as the first syllable of the spell was uttered. As soon as the curse left Professor Quirrell's wand, he and Professor Croaker had already moved to evade the erratically targeted curse and both fired off their own counter-attack.

The Unspeakable made use of the fallen six inch needles that were clumsily defended against as he transfigured them into full blown javelins albeit less in quantity and sent them towards Professor Quirrell who was already abandoned by his master.

At the same time, Harry let out a torrent of incinerating flames as he uttered the incantation at barely above a whisper. The killing curse however, was now headed towards the huddled trio where Dean and Seamus were trying to help their friend up.

All present were saved from guessing as to which of the three would succumb to the killing curse when an animated suite of armor shielded Ron and his friends with its kite shield.

The killing curse slammed into the suit of armor's held up shield with an audible bang as the spell left a dent on the surface but barely fazed the animated defender. Neville and Professor McGonagall arrived soon after as the aged Professor barely held a gasp at the sight of the smoking heap that was the Muggle Studies Professor.

Two Professors and five students were all too soon distracted by the arrival of the Headmaster in a flash of flame.

"Albus Dumbledore," the wraith of the Dark Lord rasped as he floated above the smoking pile of ashes of his minion. "You see what I've become, what I must do to survive?"

"It was your own actions that have become your undoing Tom. And now I'm afraid, I cannot permit you to leave." The Headmaster said as he concentrated on the castle wards to lock the wraith down.

The wraith laughed in a raspy voice, "What makes you think I have in need of your permission old man?" he said as he felt the weight of the castle wards on his current form. With a deep concentration to one of his anchors, the Dark Lord willed himself to be pulled towards one of them away from Hogwarts albeit painfully even with his current condition, free of the castle's wards.

All were silent for quite some time until the Headmaster spoke, "I believe it is safe to say that the danger has passed. I must commend you both Mr. Potter, Mr. Longbottom, for hiding your presence as soon as the wraith emerged."

Harry removed his invisibility cloak and gave the Headmaster a nod while Neville stepped out of the corner he leaned on when the wizened wizard arrived. "Of course Headmaster, may we take out leave? I don't think any of those three are hurt, so I guess we can just levitate them back to our dorm room." Neville suggested.

"Yes, you may Mr. Longbottom." The Headmaster answered. "Oh, and a word of advice Mr. Longbottom, next time you stun and body bind your classmates, do make sure the ground is cushioned." Professor Dumbledore added with a grandfatherly smile.

"Yes, of course Headmaster." Neville said with a cheeky grin towards the affronted look of Professor McGonagall.

Harry once again, headed off another reprimanding by the stern Professor as he walked past Neville with a levitated Dean Thomas following him. "Good night Professors," He simply said as he disappeared around the corner.

o0o

Hogsmeade Station

Hogwarts' express

June 26, 1992

The following week, the rest of the student population of Hogwarts heard none of the eventful confrontation in the forbidden third floor corridor. Although there were speculations on how Ron and his friends managed to lose a total of one-hundred and fifty points and spent the last week at Hogwarts in detention with Mr. Filch, none had the exact details except for Harry and his friends who understood the implications of such an event and would never betray his and Neville's trust for sharing what has occurred.

Naturally, Gryffindor House came last on the house cup which was an added misery for most of the competitive members of the house lions since the quidditch cup also managed to slip by their fingers when the Ravenclaw Quidditch team snagged the win during the final game of the school year with the most points garnered throughout the season.

Needless to say that it was a subdued atmosphere around the fanatical members of Gryffindor house as they moved through the Hogwarts' express for a relaxing ride home for the summer.

On one particular wider train compartment however, Harry along with Neville, Blaise, Daphne, Tracey, Hermione and Tonks, planned to spend the train ride home discussing plans for the summer. At least, that was what Hermione wanted to ask her friends about.

When she felt the train started to move, Hermione asked, "So, what is everybody's plan for the summer?"

Different reactions were observed from the compartment's occupants. Neville and Blaise appeared nonchalant as was Harry while Tracey and Tonks both giggled like a school girl; but Hermione was quite surprised by Daphne's cold look towards Harry.

The raven-haired boy matched Daphne's look with a steady gaze. This went on for a few moments until Daphne's look softened and turned to pleading as she asked, "Do you have to spend _most_ of the summer in France?"

Harry inclined his head to the side which prompted Daphne to continue, "Can't you go vacationing anywhere else? Like America, we can go on a road trip; I'd even allow your godfather to drive…"

Harry cracked an amused smile, "Nice try Daph, but you have summer classes…"

"So do you!" Daphne argued.

This caused Harry to chuckle, "Yes… I too have summer classes… in France…" he teased.

Daphne groaned and buried her face on Harry's shoulder as she clutched on his arm tightly. "I want a transfer…" she mumbled with less fervor.

Their interaction was closely observed by Hermione with great interest as she desperately wanted to know the story behind the argument. She had an inkling that maybe Harry has already told her about part of it before that incident last Halloween but seeing that kind of reaction from Daphne, she just had to know more about her friends.

Tracey took pity on Hermione as she leaned close to her and whispered, "That Hermione; is the spoiled Daphne Greengrass we rarely get to see. She usually emerges when you put Harry and France in the same sentence."

At Hermione's questioning look, Tracey continued, "But in order for you to fully understand, let me first tell you about someone named Fleur Delacour…"

o0o

A quarter of an hour before their train arrived at King's Cross station, Hermione was particularly thrilled after knowing more about her friends. She found it amusing how Daphne could be possessive of Harry only from a certain French witch; who has been Harry's friend almost as long as the Greengrass heiress.

Throughout the tale of Harry's and Daphne's childhood, Tonks sometimes chimed in as she shared her snippets of stories as did Neville and Blaise, though the latter two only did so when Daphne's glare was diverted from them.

When the train stopped in the station, after they waited a few minutes for the crowd of students to thin along the hallway, they disembarked and quickly made their way towards where their parents seemed to have congregated together to wait for their children.

Greetings were exchanged between the children and the parents. After some quick small talk about their collective experiences during the school year, they said their farewells.

Hermione went over to Daphne, Tonks and Harry after she said her farewell to Neville, Blaise and Tracey.

"Will you at least visit before you leave for France?" Hermione heard Daphne ask Harry.

Harry smiled at the pale-blonde witch and said, "Everyday Daphne, until I leave."

Daphne sighed, "Fine, bright and early tomorrow then." She conceded and then turned to Hermione, "And you Hermione will be spending summer with us whenever your summer school lets up. Tracey and I will be owling you." She said with finality.

Hermione beamed at what Daphne said and hurriedly with an enthusiastic nod. To be honest, as much as she loved learning, she wasn't looking forward to her non-magical summer school where she has no friends and will most probably see her old tormentors, the ones that called her names and belittled her because of her mental prowess.

Before they knew it, both Daphne and Harry were given enthusiastic hugs by a very elated Hermione. They exchanged farewells and each made their way home with their families.

* * *

**A/N: That ends their first year at Hogwarts. There are some terms in there I borrowed from a game called Kingdoms of Amalur which I don't own (Hope that counted as a disclaimer), but no worries, this won't be a surprise crossover. Review on what you think would be much appreciated, if you have any suggestions or ideas to better the story, they would be much appreciated as well and lastly if there are any questions, you may PM me.**


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